


The Crime of Freedom

by Moonfireflight



Series: Yandere!Seven [1]
Category: Mystic Messenger (Video Game)
Genre: After Bad Ending 2, Angst, Blood, Blow Jobs, Bondage, Break the Cutie, Chained up, Collar, Dom!Seven, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Gaslighting, Gunplay, I'm adding those in case someone has any bad relationship triggers, Mention of an off screen character's death by suicide, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Not-So-Great MC, Psychological Horror, Suicidal Thoughts, Vaginal Fingering, Vaginal Sex, Yandere, Yandere Seven, dubcon, gps tracking, how about some tv tropes tags, living emotional crutch, love makes you crazy, more tags to follow as new chapters happen, non-canon, remember the dubcon tag?, sadist, spying on phone, unhealthy relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-23
Updated: 2019-02-26
Packaged: 2019-05-13 02:24:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 41,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14740269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moonfireflight/pseuds/Moonfireflight
Summary: This fic is a what-if continuation of Seven's Bad Ending 2. A friend and I were talking about it, and musing about how badly it could go, with Seven becoming increasingly possessive and a bit... yandere.This takes place after the ending/as an alternate version of it where they follow through on the idea of living at sea. Seven has given up everything to be with the love of his life. What will he do to keep her? (I'm not yet sure how dark this is going to go, but it's not going to be healthy.) Also, this is kind of an alternate universe Seven compared to how I typically write him, just for the purposes of drama and angst.Edit: It's going nowhere good, I can promise you that 100% as I've already written the ending. We just have to get there :)Edit 2: Oh my god I actually finished this beast and I'm literally crying right now from relief and just -gestures vaguely at the story-





	1. Chapter 1

“Seven, you're free now, right? You can...do whatever you want now, I bet…” The meaning of her words was clear from her tone to the way she shifted her body against his. Her heat suffused him, her breasts against his back, one thigh draped over his own. He stared at the faux wood paneling inches from his eyes, running his fingers over his silver cross necklace. The cool metal felt like it was burning his flesh as he realized he was seriously considering giving in.

He twined his fingers with hers, pulling her arm around him as he still clutched the cross with the other. “Yeah, we're free, babe.” She made a delighted noise and managed to snuggle up even closer to him. Her breath teased at his neck, causing a shiver to course through his body. It felt so good to be held, to be wanted. He never imagined he could have this in his life. Without having experienced it, he hadn't realized how desperately he needed someone to touch him with kindness in their heart. 

Her voice interrupted his thoughts again. “Honeyyy, it feels so good to be close to you like this at last. Can't we please be a little closer though?” She wasn't letting up, and every word, every microscopic shift of her warmth against his tired body cracked his resolve a little more.

“H-hold on. Please. Just...give me a moment.” Luciel closed his eyes, the rocking of the boat making him feel like he was floating in a void. He'd given up on finding his brother, sure that wherever he was must be better than the dark and lonely life Luciel had carved out in this world. By disappearing, he'd severed his ties to the RFA. He'd made sure to permanently alter the code with layers of randomness and encryption that would ensure the hacker could never hurt them. Not only that, but he'd deleted everything related to his profile, effectively banning himself so that he could never download or connect to the app again. Every step of that process had felt like carving part of himself away. The RFA had been the only ties to normalcy in his life for years, keeping him grounded while he played Mr. Secret Agent. 

They were gone now, and the loss pulled at him harder than expected. Despite the sweet angel holding him and murmuring words of love and lust against him, he felt like he was bleeding out. His grip on the cross tightened and he realized it was starting to bend in his grasp. It too was now permanently altered. Ruined. 

Thinking back, no matter how hard he'd tried to believe, what proof had he that God cared for a wretched fool like him other than her? He'd never cared if his next mission would end with him dying, forgotten in the dark, left in some alley like common trash until she came into his life. What light did he have before her laughter? 

Luciel let the cross fall from his grasp. Surely the most profound sin would be to squander this gift. Yes. She was all he had now. If he were empty, he would let her fill every dark space within him with her light. If he was bleeding, she was the only thing that could heal his wounds. She was everything he never knew he needed. How could a love so perfect be a crime against a loving God? He silently vowed to accept everything his angel deemed him worthy to have, and he would give what was left of himself in turn. 

What's one more point of no return anyway? He took a deep breath and began to roll over to face her, resulting in them ending up even more tangled together, to her delight. And there it was. He had been afraid to face it earlier, knowing he wouldn't have been able to think clearly, knowing that the decision wouldn't have been his. That smile that he would do anything for, without a doubt. She was sharing it with him and only him. 

He'd wanted to crack a joke, but he found himself breathless and tongue-tied before her as her adoration washed over him. All he had to do was let go. Casting restraint aside, he gave in to the nearly unbearable desire that had been building up within him, pulling her in close and kissing her deeply. It wasn’t their first kiss, but it was the first time he let himself enjoy her without the walls he’d built up inside, and without fearing he’d let himself fall into sin. He felt like he was losing himself in her and he loved it. The softness of her lips and the heat of her tongue moving against his silenced any lingering guilt he had. 

When he broke the kiss, she opened her lust-darkened eyes, and her gaze bore through the last vestiges of his barriers. In seconds, he had her pinned underneath him, straddling her hips, as he returned the kiss fiercely. She purred under him, her hands deftly sliding up under his shirt, caressing the hard planes of his chest that she had so longed to feel under her fingertips. He’d never been touched like this before, and he knew he was already addicted. 

Letting his urges guide him, he sat up so that he could pull his shirt off. Closer? He could do that. He wanted every part of his body free for her to explore, and to feel every bit of hers. His fingertips hesitated for a moment at the hem of her shirt. Before he could make the decision, she sat up and removed her top, revealing a lacy black bra. Heat rose to his cheeks instantly, and he knew he was guilty of staring at her. “Y-you’re beautiful,” he stuttered. She responded with crystalline laughter which just made his heart beat faster and his head spin. 

“Seveny, don’t be shy. This is what lovers do. Please… touch me.” Before he knew what was happening, she’d taken his hands in hers and placed them on her full breasts. His face was so hot that his glasses were already slipping down his nose, but he let himself explore the soft flesh and lace under his fingers, massaging them, tracing his fingers along the edges of the ornate trim. He found her hardened nipples and captured one between his thumb and forefinger, pinching it carefully. Her reaction was instantaneous, her eyes fluttering closed and soft pants escaping from her lips. “Yes… just like that.” 

She grasped at his shoulders, pulling herself up to kiss him again. He let his hands roam across the expanse of her back, marveling at how soft every part of her was. Needing to taste more of her, he let his kisses trail down to her jawline, laving over her neck, feeling her pulse beneath his lips. The fire that was building within him roared to life as the drum of her heartbeat pounded against his hungry mouth. As he tasted her, he fumbled with the clasp of her bra, craving unrestricted access her warmth. He wanted to feel her against his chest with nothing left between them. 

Once undone, she slipped the straps of the lacy garment from her shoulders and threw it to the other side of the cabin. She’d had the same idea, and she wrapped her arms around him as they crashed together. 

He felt like a circuit had been completed when they touched, and he was in awe of it. Every new sensation seemed to fill him with new life, and he needed more. He would always need more. Luciel rolled off of the girl and moved to kneel between her thighs. “Yes, Luciel. Make me yours,” she moaned eagerly. He’d never been so hard in his life, and he felt like his jeans were a few sizes too small as he strained against them. His hands shook as he worked at his belt, eager to be free from the confines of his clothing, yet still nervous to be naked before her. He still couldn’t believe this was actually happening. 

He stood up and let his jeans drop to the floor, kicking them across the cabin. When he looked up, he was surprised to find that she was sitting at the edge of the bed, hands already reaching for the band of his boxers. When she made contact, he yelped and almost backed away from her, not having expected this kind of aggression from the sweet, naive girl in the chatroom. She giggled as she tugged at the elastic, waggling her eyebrows at him, before working them down over his hips. 

The embarrassment that threatened to overwhelm him at being suddenly exposed before her was banished instantly as one of her hands went to cup his balls and the other wrapped around his length. “Mmm, Seveny! I knew you’d be big, but this is incredible!” His knees almost gave out as she began stroking his cock, her face inches away from it, lips slightly parted. 

“Oh G-God, if you do that, I’m not going to last. Please.” This time he did take a step back, and she let her hands fall to her side, pouting up at him. He pinched the bridge of his nose and took a few deep breaths, willing his body to relax enough that he wouldn’t make his first time a complete embarrassment. “Lie back down on the bed for me, okay?”

She scooted back up the bed and propped herself up on her elbow, looking at him coyly and playing with the hem of her skirt. He took the bait willingly, climbing up on the bed and grabbing her hips. He kissed the smooth skin above her waistband, as he hooked this thumbs into it and she squirmed beneath him, making delighted noises. Taking another deep breath, he began pulling down her skirt, and she helped him by lifting her hips to wiggle out of it. 

He sucked in a breath at the sight of her panties, a perfect match to the bra that was somewhere on the other side of the cabin. She was so wet that the black lace clung to her sex, hiding nearly nothing from him. Luciel’s cock twitched in anticipation as he let his hands roam over her hips and thighs, before finally dragging a finger over the soaked fabric. Her long, drawn-out moan reverberated through his body, and he had to grit his teeth, willing himself to calm down again. 

After a few breaths, he pushed her panties aside and watched in awe as his fingers probed at her heated folds. Though he’d never done this before, he knew to seek out a certain swollen bundle of nerves, and he experimentally swirled a digit around it. She gasped and cried out his name, her whole body shaking from his touch. He’d never felt so powerful in his entire life. Just a tiny movement of one of his fingers and she was already falling apart. This was the most addicting thing he’d ever known. 

Luciel seized the lacy garment and helped her wiggle free from it. As her hips dropped back to the bed, she spread her legs wide, giving him complete and unrestricted access to her. He desperately wanted to taste her at the sight of her inviting wetness, but he was still nervous enough to cast that urge aside for another night. There would be many other nights like this if he had his way. He let his fingers find that little nub again, allowing her moans to guide him as he learned what she liked. 

Feeling a little braver, he gingerly pressed a digit into her slit, groaning in appreciation as he felt how hot she was inside. “I can take more than that, Luciel. Don’t worry,” she said, voice cracking slightly. Her words reached his burning ears and stoked his inner fires to a fever pitch. Still giving attention to her clit, he plunged two fingers inside of her heat, pumping them in and out of her. Her shouts of pleasure echoed through the small ship’s cabin as she came, clenching around him. “Fuck yes, Seven! God, take me now!” 

Luciel moaned at her vulgar outburst, not expecting to hear such words fall from her lips. He found that he loved it and was more than ready to give her what she wanted. As he positioned himself between her legs, the logical part of his brain came back online just in time. “Wait, I don’t have a… will we be okay?”

“It’s fine; I’m on the pill. I want to feel you inside of me, Seveny~” The way she drew out her cute nickname for him made his heart feel like it was going to burst. Bracing himself with one hand, he positioned himself at her entrance with the other, drawing in a long breath.

They moaned in tandem as he slowly pushed his way into her. If she felt hot to his fingers, she felt like an inferno around his cock. Once he was in her to the hilt, he paused again to compose himself. He knew he wasn’t going to last long, so he vowed to focus on her pleasure above all else. 

Luciel’s first few movements were cautious and shallow as he felt out what he was doing. He followed her body as she angled her hips upward underneath him and moved her legs up nearly to his shoulders. As he gained confidence, his thrusts became deeper, faster, and her moans spurred him on. “Yes! Oh God Seven I feel you so deep inside me. Please! Harder!” He felt his brain start to freeze, error messages piling up. He focused everything on giving her what she wanted as she choked out strangled sobs of pleasure beneath him. 

As he felt everything tense up within him, he knew he was close. He brought a shaking hand between them and ravaged her swollen bud, determined that she’d find release before him. In seconds she was howling and convulsing beneath him and around him. He gasped as he reached his peak as well, spilling into her depths. It was almost immediately too much sensation for him to handle, and he pulled out of her, trying to catch his breath. When he finally opened his eyes, she was smiling up at him, a content look on her face.

“Oooh Luciel. You’re amazing,” she cooed at him, placing a hand on his cheek. “Come snuggle with me, pleeease?” It took effort not to just collapse on top of her, but he willed his quivering muscles into action and managed to flop down next to her and pull her to him. She wrapped her arms around him, tucking herself against his chest, where she murmured, “I love you, Seven.”

“Aaah, no fair saying it first!” Luciel chuckled, and she relished in the sound as it reverberated through his chest.

“Then say it.”

He moved so that he could cup her chin and tilt her face to look at his. “I love you, MC. You are my light, my salvation, my everything. I would gladly die for you. I would do anything for you.” She beamed at him in pure joy and dove in to kiss him. 

They stayed there, tangled together for some time. Eventually, Luciel felt the urge to stretch his stiffening muscles. When he peered out of the cabin door, he could see that night had fallen. “Hey, MC. Come with me. Let’s go look at the stars together.” 

She made a sleepy noise of protest, and he tousled her long brown hair. “Come oooon~,” he called to her playfully. “We can figure out where we are, too!” 

The two of them got mostly dressed. He threw on a pair of pants and his hoodie, and she grabbed one of his shirts, which fell just barely to her thighs. The sight of her wearing only his shirt was enough to get him half hard again. He hoped the cool night air would help because he knew even his trained body couldn’t handle another round with her just yet. 

He led her by the hand up the few steps to the deck, and as soon as she looked up she exclaimed, “wow! I’ve never seen the stars so bright in all my life!” 

Luciel wrapped an arm around her and gazed up in awe himself. “It’s amazing how bright they are when you are away from the big city, huh? If we live here on this boat, the stars will be like this every night for us.” 

She stopped looking up and instead scanned the faint lights on the horizon. They were already closer to the shore than he’d planned on. “But, Luciel. Do we really have to stay on the boat forever? It’s so small. Can’t we go exploring?” 

He hesitated a moment. She was probably right. While he was used to being cooped up in his bunker, so the small space here didn’t bother him, she would want to be free. The thought of her even leaving his sight for a second terrified him, but he’d have to get over that if she was to be happy, right? “Well… okay. I’ll find somewhere safe that we can explore sometime soon. We still need to be careful as Interpol will be looking for me, and there might be people looking for you as well since you just disappeared with me. I’ve… changed up your records a little so you’ll be harder to find, but it’s still a risk.” 

He wasn’t even sure if she was listening to him as she ran over to the railing closest to the shore and was straining to see something. “Seveny! I think there’s a fair or an amusement park over there! Do you see the Ferris wheel?! It’s huge! Can we go?!” 

Luciel felt a heaviness in his chest, seeing her so eager to leave their newfound home already. Every molecule of his body wanted him to say no. It was too dangerous. He could lose her. Then she spun to face him, her hair dancing around her, and that smile, that beautiful smile, directed at him. His heart pounded, once, twice. “An amusement park would be super fun! Let’s do it! I’ll get us closer to the shore and find somewhere we can hide the boat and we can go tomorrow after breakfast. I’ll win you any prize you want!”

She hopped and spun around the deck, filled with joy, before running at him to jump into his arms. He caught her and twirled her around before setting her bare feet back on the deck and kissing her again. 

Here out on the ocean, under the stars, he felt like they were only two beings in the universe. Even if she was all he had left in this world, she was all that he needed, and Luciel knew he’d do anything to keep her by his side.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A short in-between chapter, mostly introspective.  
> (I'M SORRY, SEVEN, ILU BBY)

Luciel stood alone at the prow of the ship, his red hair fluttering in the cool night breeze. He pushed a lock of it out of his eyes and looked up at the star-strewn sky. Usually gazing upon the stars calmed him. What was there to honestly worry about when he was so small compared to the vastness of space? Tonight, though, his heart was filled with trepidation. 

Some part of him felt like he was already losing her. He had promised that they would spend the rest of their lives having fun together, but how could that be possible when talking to the wrong person or being seen in the wrong place could result in him being arrested? Even worse, while he’d told her that he’d only altered her records, that wasn’t the full truth. He’d erased her. Every digital trace of her existence was scrubbed. Any family or friends who tried to locate her would almost question if she had even existed in the first place. If she was taken in and questioned…

His hand went to the silver cross around his neck, as it often did when he was nervous. It had long been a source of comfort for him, even in those moments where his beliefs waned. Maybe it was just a habit. As he ran his fingers over it, he felt the spot where he’d damaged it earlier. With a crooked cross and a life built upon sin after sin, he realized it would never comfort him again. He angrily pulled it over his head, staring at it for another moment as it caught the faint light of the moon above, before hurling it out into the ocean. He watched blankly as it quickly sank beneath the dark surface of the water, gone forever, lost to black waters and a wavering reflection of the sky above. 

His view of the ocean began to blur, and he realized he was clutching the railing in both hands as hot tears streamed down his face. No, dammit, he’d made the right decision. The RFA, his brother, they were better off without him. Even Vanderwood, who no longer had to clean up after him or make excuses for him. He had to focus on her now. Keeping MC and himself safe was all that mattered.

Even so convinced, he still had to wait until his tears ran their course. He fell to his knees, knuckles turning white as he feared to release the railing, sure the wind would catch him and cast him out to sea, as empty and hollow as he was. Heaving and sobbing almost silently, he cursed himself for letting depression overtake him now. He was no longer alone. Once he’d returned to her embrace, all would be right again. 

As the salty air dried his eyes, leaving them stinging and burning, he fought for control of his breathing again. How could the simple and automatic act of taking in oxygen to fuel his body suddenly seem like such an overbearing task? 

If he were hollow, he would fill up those vast and dusty spaces with her love. If his eyes were burning pits, her softness and sweetness would quench them. Luciel began to feel somewhat human again and picked himself up from the cold deck, casting one last glance at the starry sky and it’s reflection below.

He quietly padded down the stairs to their cabin, removing his glasses so that he could wipe the last of the moisture from his face. Even without his glasses and in this low light, her form was beautiful to his aching eyes. She was like an oasis on a desert planet, calling to him and promising comfort and life. 

As he curled up behind her on the bed and wrapped an arm around her, she stirred from her slumber. He heard her cute sleepy voice mumble “love you,” before she settled back into the slow, deep breaths of slumber. 

“I love you too, my angel,” he whispered against her, as he let her warmth seep into his body, and into his very existence.

***

Luciel awoke, his stomach a pit of dread and roiling acid. Nightmares, gone but for fleeting tendrils of fear and longing, had cast him out of his slumber. Even in the waking world, he sensed something was wrong. Sitting bolt upright, he realized why. He was alone. All of the panic and terror from his dreams crashed back into him at full force, and he curled in upon himself as the muscles in his stomach all clenched, bile burning his insides. 

He did his best to collect his thoughts, which turned against him in a vicious tirade. You idiot, she can’t be far. It’s a tiny boat. She’s not going to jump overboard and swim to shore to leave you. She’s not going to leave you. Don’t be stupid. 

He ran up the stairs two at a time, breathing hard. Luciel flung the door to the deck open harder than he meant to, causing it to slam into the wall and shake on its hinges. As he saw her, he stopped, frozen in place. She was standing on the deck in a sundress, holding a bag of honey butter chips. Several seagulls flew away in a cloud of angry squawking. She turned to him with a perturbed look on her face, exclaiming “Honey, you scared away my new friends!” 

The anger that was broiling inside his gut surprised him. He should be happy to see that she was here and safe, but something about her naive and ridiculous behavior, when he had nearly been consumed by terror, was eating at his heart. 

Lashing out at her would be pointlessly cruel. It’s not her fault. The plan was to run away and live the rest of their lives carefree and joyful. He was the one fucking it up already. His eyes wandered to the horizon where he could still faintly make out the Ferris wheel she’d seen the night before. She was right. They should spend a happy day together, playing and laughing. Yes, that’s what they would do.  
“I’m sorry, babe. Let me make it up to you. We’ll have breakfast, spend some time together in the cabin, then I’ll take us to shore so we can check out the fair. Sound good?” 

Some old part of him cringed as she crushed the bag of chips in her hands as she held them together before her, in a gesture of pure joy. “I like the way you think, my beloved husband! It’s a plan!” His heart soared at her words. Beloved husband and wife, just as they should be. It would be a good day.


	3. Chapter 3

Most of their breakfast sat forgotten, as eating had swiftly turned to flirting, with MC insinuating there was something sweeter Luciel could taste if he wished. He had blushed and stuttered at first, but minutes later he was lightheaded and awestruck, senses filled by her scent and her nectar. The cabin echoed with her panting and moaning as he learned her body anew.

She was laying back on the bed, spread out before him, one hand tangled in his red curls as he dipped his tongue into her slit again. His head was spinning. Every time she cried out, the sound went straight to his loins. He let her voice guide him as he discovered what could get her to make more of those sweet sounds.

As he swirled his tongue around her swollen bud, lavishing it with gentle attention, she wrapped her legs around his shoulders, holding him tight. He hummed against her clit, hoping she would enjoy the sensation. Her response was instant as she arced under him, riding her orgasm hard against him, drowning him in it. His mind went white as pleasure coursed through his body as well. After his nervousness last night, he felt utterly victorious as she panted and mewled before him.

Luciel gave her a few moments to catch her breath once she had relaxed her grip on him, but he needed more. Wrapping his arms around her thighs, he pulled her to him, making her head slip off the pillow as she gasped. He covered her dripping sex with his mouth, his tongue dancing through her folds, eliciting a shriek from MC. “Seven! I can’t take any more already!”

She wriggled in his grasp, trying to escape him but something about her struggles made him want to continue more than anything. His blood was rushing, roaring through his veins. He’d never felt so alive. He tightened his grip on her before flicking his tongue over her bud again. With just that small movement, her whole body shuddered under him. “Seven! Please! It’s too much!” Her cries only served to spur him onward as some primal part of himself awoke, a starving, slathering beast hunched over its prey.

He held her tightly so that she couldn’t slip out of his reach again as he had his way with her. The feel of her squirming under him as her pleas for him to stop turned into sobbing moans had him harder than he had ever been before. He devoured her, driving his tongue into her heat, lapping up every drop she gave him until she was shaking and screaming as another orgasm tore through her. He wanted to continue, to see how much pleasure she could handle, to keep feeling her struggling against him, but he was also acutely aware of his own needs as well.

Releasing her legs, he raised himself up on his knees and gazed down upon her supine form. Her body seemed to glow in the dim light. He couldn’t believe this creature of softness and beauty was actually his. His voice caught in his dry throat, though he wasn’t sure how he could possibly put his feelings into words anyway. Instead, he pulled himself up over her to kiss her, realizing a second too late that his lips still carried her taste. He was about to pull away when she wrapped her arms around him, deepening the kiss by exploring his mouth with her tongue, and moaning against him.

The perversity of her enjoying her own taste unleashed the last of his restraint. He undid his jeans and shoved them down just enough to be out of his way. Sucking in a breath as the crisp sea air grazed his cock, he let his body take over as he plunged into his bride’s soaking depths, causing her to shriek out his name. It was as if he were merely a passenger in his body as he pounded into her relentlessly, and for a moment he feared it would be too much for MC. But just has his mind formed the thought, she dug her nails into his shoulders and shamelessly begged him for more.

Her depraved pleas inspired him to try something else new. He pulled out of her, ignoring her whines, and nudged her to roll over. She understood him immediately and dropped to her elbows and knees in front of him, spreading her legs wide. He groaned at the sight and her instant obedience to his whims. Kneeling behind her, he lined himself up with her slit before grabbing her hips and slamming into her.

As her arms immediately gave out before her, leaving her moaning and drooling into the bed, a wicked laugh bubbled up from within him. In his whole life, he’d never been in control of anything, never had anything of his own. Maybe it was wrong to think of her as a possession, and he didn’t really… he loved her and respected her. Yet… she was his all the same.

He withdrew from her almost entirely before thrusting into her again, his hips crashing against her. The sensation was different from before, and she felt tighter and even hotter, her walls clenching against him so insistently. She turned her head to shout back at him, “God Seven, you’re so fucking good! Make me yours!” Her words ripped any sense of rhythm from him as he pounded into her mercilessly. She was his.

In no time, she came for him again, shuddering and screaming, her heat convulsing around his cock, milking him, begging for him to spill his seed inside of her. Luciel fucked her fiercely, groaning as his muscles tightened and pleasure built within him to a degree he’d never felt before, leaving his mind buzzing like an old CRT monitor. With a final thrust, he growled a single word as he spent himself within her depths. “MINE.” His fingers dug into MC’s hips while he rode out his orgasm, pulsing over and over, filling her. He didn’t release her until his breathing had almost returned to normal.

Coming down from his high at last, he withdrew from her and let her slump down face first on the bed. He took a moment to admire the mess they had made, before laying down with her. She kept her face hidden in the pillows, and he hoped it was just from exhaustion. Despite his newfound confidence, he couldn’t help but be a little concerned that he’d frightened her. Hesitantly, he ran his hand over her back. Her warmth and softness calmed his heart a little and caused her to stir. She rolled over sleepily and grinned at him, chasing away the last of his fears. “Oh, Luciel. I didn’t know you were going to be the possessive type.”

Was he? He wanted to correct her, but he also remembered how amazing he’d felt as he thought about this beautiful creature being his alone, and how she had let herself be willingly molded to his whims. Before he could contest her accusation, she continued, “I love it. I want to be yours in every way possible.”

His breath caught at her words. She wanted this?

It felt to him like his mind was rearranging itself, reforming to process this new information. He had been struggling to understand his own identity, his place in the world, after running from his old life, and he was sure he would be figuring himself out for quite some time. But she… she gave him purpose.

“I love you, MC. I’ll be whatever you want. We’ll laugh, we’ll play, and no matter what, you’ll always be mine.” She smiled, and he felt it in his soul. It was as if clouds parted and a gentle ray of sunlight caressed his body, soothing away the hurts of the past.

***  
They lazed about for most of the day, holding each other and joking together. The sound of her laughter was swiftly becoming his drug of choice, and her sense of humor matched his perfectly. No joke was too stupid or irreverent. He vowed to make her laugh every day of their lives.

As the sun began to play across the horizon, Luciel directed their little ship, their little world, to the shore. The Ferris wheel MC had spotted earlier overlooked the ocean from an amusement park right on the coast in the heart of a large city. Hiding the ship wouldn’t be easy, especially since they were entering the waters of another country and neither of them had any legitimate identification. He had planned to forge her a new identity eventually, but he hadn’t had the chance to do so yet.

While approaching their destination, he spent some time watching as the ships sailed in and out of port, the ebb and flow of a coastal city. One of those ports had to be a safe place to hide out and smuggle themselves into the city. Eventually, his observations yielded a possibility.

He wrapped one arm around MCs waist and pulled her to him as he steered them towards one of the shadier docks. She had been beaming up at the city, eagerly imagining the wonders they would find there, but her smile began to slip when she saw where they were headed. “Seven… is this area safe? This reminds me of a movie I once saw, and it didn’t go well.”

“It’s fine, babe. Just stay close to me and don’t say anything to anyone. I’ll keep you safe, I promise,” he said, pulling her in for a kiss. “Never forget that we are on the run. We’ll always get to laugh and play together so long as we stay free.”

Through careful maneuvering, they managed to avoid detection by the authorities or anyone who cared enough about them to cause them trouble. Luciel found an abandoned dock to hide in and was confident that the ship wouldn’t be noticed there. Mostly confident. Reasonably confident. He couldn’t completely shake the feeling in his gut that this was a bad idea, as much as he had wanted to grant her wish. It felt like the entire world sought to tear her away from him. Several of his missions in the past had only gone as well as they had because he had listened to his gut, but he would just have to outsmart this cruel world somehow.

MC looked back at their ship with a small frown. “Are you sure it’s OK for us to leave it here?”

“Don’t worry about it! Let’s just spend the evening having fun together. That’s all that matters, right? Everything else will fall into place.” As soon as the words left his mouth, his mind began looping the same phrase over and over. You’re going to lose her.

He shook his head, and grabbed her hand, as they darted off towards the city.

***

It had only taken a few minutes of running to get through the less savory areas and into the city proper. They took a moment to catch their breath before stepping out into the brightly lit street, ready to play the part of the dazzled tourist couple. While they were further away from the Ferris wheel than they had hoped, it was becoming clear that it lay at the heart of a massive amusement park on the coast. “Seven, look! I can’t wait! But I can’t read the signs here. Will we be OK?”

He smiled over at her. Maybe it was terrible for him to think this, but he found himself glad that she didn’t know the local language. If she couldn’t talk to anyone or get her bearings, she was less likely to stray from his side. “Ah, well. I’m fluent in 17 languages, and this happens to be one of them! You don’t have to worry about anything, babe. I’ll take care of it all.”

A few steps later they began to hear the first hints of festive music coming from the park. While the Ferris wheel dominated its profile, Luciel could see the tops of garish tents and the twisting peaks of a roller coaster as well from behind the multicolored walls. Everything was dotted with colorful lights, some blinking, some steady, all a cacophony of rainbow stars against his smudged glasses. When he removed them to scrub them clean with the hem of his shirt, he looked at the scene again. The crowd was flowing in and out of the park in seemingly endless rivers, backlit by a wash of frenetic color like a finger painting made of light.

Once he had gotten over the initial discomfort of entering such a noisy and crowded place and he began to instead focus on MC’s reactions, he started to honestly enjoy himself. It was his first time at an amusement park or anything like it, and his inner child was ecstatic. It was easy to forget that they were trying to hide from the world when everything was such a delight to the senses.

“What shall we do first, MC? It looks like there’s games, food, rides, everything!”

She beamed up at him while bouncing on the balls of her feet, a vision of eagerness. “Oh Seven, I want to do everything!” He let himself be pulled along as she wove her fingers through his and skipped along the path to take them deeper into the park, threading their way through the flow of the crowd. When she suddenly stopped, he almost crashed into her. Luciel followed MC’s line of sight to see what enraptured her so. It was a game booth outlined in rows of large plush cats, their fluffy smiling faces beckoning passersby to try their luck.

“Ah ha! Does my lady need a big fuzzy cat friend?”

He immediately missed the warmth of her when MC released his hand so she could dance and clap before him.“Oh yes, please! They’re so cute!”

All he wanted right then was to completely share her carefree excitement, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that her naivety was a liability. But she had fallen in love with silly 707, and that’s what she would have. Her love for him should be proof enough that he deserved a chance to enjoy this life, right? “Okay! I, the great 707, will win you a prize. It’s a promise!” He shuffled through the crowd, keeping her close to him the whole time until he was at the back of the vague line that had formed before the booth. Ah. The game involved shooting small targets with an airgun. Was it even fair for him to compete in this one? Then again, carnival games were hardly known for fair play either, were they? She would indeed have her prize.

The rules were simple. He had six shots to take out five targets. A glance towards MC told him she was curious to see how he would do. With the gun in his hands, he let a little bit of the Luciel of the past shine through, the deadly secret agent locked in combat with unknown assailants. As his first shot buried itself dead center in the target, she gasped in surprise. When the second shot found its home perfectly as well, she was in awe.

Sometime between the third and fourth, she began to gaze him through hooded eyes, apparently appreciating seeing him play the part of the steely-eyed assassin, even though his targets were only made of wood. She wasn’t the only one. The crowd had gone from milling around and keeping to their own conversations to thrilling at watching each new perfect shot from the unassuming looking redhead.

Several people cheered when he made the final shot with perfect precision. MC squealed and latched onto his arm tightly. She looked up at him through fluttering eyelashes, and he smiled at the lovely blush that tinted her cheeks. “Seveny, you’re so talented. It’s kind of scary how good you are at that.” There was no doubt that he was blushing as well once she stood on her tiptoes to whisper in his ear, “honestly, it was insanely hot..” Her blush was suddenly contagious… he never thought someone would appreciate his skills in that way… She was still clinging to him as he collected his prize from the miffed man running the booth, and he felt the warmth of her breasts pressed against his arm. Suddenly the press of the crowd seemed sweltering, so he pushed his way out of it as politely as he could, with MC on one arm and the cat plush in the other.

It took a few deep breaths for him to cool off once away from the booth, as well as to convince his body that now was not an ideal time to be straining against his pants. At last, he was able to focus on her again, and she was looking at him expectantly. “Ah yes, your prize, my dearest!” He handed her the cat with as much drama as he could muster, which sent her into a shower of musical giggles. She hugged it to her chest and shut her eyes, and she nuzzled her face into the soft white fur.

A white cat. He fondly remembered the days of teasing Jumin about breaking into his penthouse to spend time with Elizabeth III. It was so much fun to antagonize the man, but in the end, they still knew they could rely on each other if need be. He hoped they were both still doing well.

“I love her, Seveny! Thank you so much! Hmm, what should we do next?”

Luciel made a show of sniffing the air like a dog, causing her to laugh even more. “What’s that I smell? Something fried? Something fish? Shall we go get a snack?” She joined in the act as well, walking on her tiptoes as she followed her nose in the direction of the snack booths. It was hard to fathom how she could be so hot one moment and so cute the next. He needed to stop worrying and just enjoy this night.

After visiting multiple booths, they ended up with quite a haul of fried goodies, both savory and sweet. They had one of his favorite treats, and MC squealed when she saw him biting into the bellies of red bean pastry fish as he’d talked about in the RFA chat room so long ago. Long? That was three weeks ago at most. Not that it mattered. This was his life now. He growled as he bit off the head of the fish next, making her shriek with mock horror.

She never even thought to question where he got the cash used to purchase their meal. Well, what she didn’t know couldn’t get them arrested for pickpocketing. He hated to resort to something so mundane, but it would have to do until he had a chance to get some equipment together to get them identification.

They ended up leaning shoulder to shoulder on a bench as they finished their meal together. Luciel felt pride well up in his chest at the feeling of such a beautiful woman, leaning against him. She loved him. Loved him! After everything he’d gone through in his life, he never imagined he could indeed have a future like this. He turned to her and brushed a lock of her hair behind her ear before kissing her temple. “I love you, MC. Thank you for giving me this chance. I’d always wanted to go to an amusement park when I was little, and I never imagined I would get to go to one with the love of my life.”

“You deserve this,” she said as she snuggled up to him further. “You deserve happiness.” That wasn’t possible with the things he had done for the agency and the fact that he’d abandoned his brother, but hearing the lie falling from her lips… he could almost believe it for a moment. She leaned in for what he thought was going to be a kiss, but instead, she licked along his lower lip, sucking at the corner of his mouth for a moment. The blush that started on his cheeks instantly traveled further down his body, leaving him breathless. What? “Mmm, that red bean filling is delicious,” she whispered, her breath tickling at his cheek.

His body moved without engaging his brain, and he pulled her in for a crushing kiss. His instinct was to hold her in place to keep her from escaping his sudden ardor, but she nearly dropped the cat toy as she wrapped one arm around him, keeping him held close. Luciel had half a mind to drag her off into some secluded corner of the park and have his way with her again and again, so luscious was her kiss and the press of her body against him.

The low thump of a bursting firework made them pause in their explorations of each other. They both looked up in time to see a flower of blues and reds expanding over and around them. He was still feeling dazed and flushed, but she seemed unaffected as she stood up to get a better look at the show. Another thump and a silvery blossom of fire filled the sky. “Seven! I bet we can see them better if we go over to that hill! Let’s go!” Before he had finished booting back up mentally, she was already vanishing into the crowd that was likely headed toward the hill she had described, plush cat held in one hand, bouncing along behind her.

_Get up you idiot, you’re going to lose her! You’re going to lose her!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't planning on adding smut to this chapter, but ... but ... it's character development smut! Anyway, gosh I hope nothing bad happens here.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> New problems, new solutions...

As Luciel anxiously forced his way into the crowd, fingers twitching with each new surge of adrenaline that spiked through his veins. He silently cursed every person who wasn’t her. His eyes darted to every face he passed, every silhouette, every profile. The constant flux between light and darkness from the firework show wasn’t helping, rendering his night vision nearly useless. He had learned so much in his years of training, and his head was ringing as he was forced to put it all into practice at once, painfully sure that he had forgotten something vital. It was his ultimate test, and his stomach lurched at the thought of failing. 

If he moved too fast, he could miss her, too slow and he could lose her. It felt like he was being pulled in every direction at once as he frantically slogged through this sea of fools gawking at the light show above. His body tensed suddenly as he nearly tripped, having stepped on something large and soft. Looking down, he feared that he had trampled someone. Instead, he saw a dirty once-white stuffed cat. 

His heart stopped as he stared down at it. She had been so proud of the prize. She wouldn’t just leave it behind. She must have been taken. Someone had her and is going to take her away from him forever. He noticed the signs from his body that told him he was on the verge of hyperventilating and drew from the remaining vague recollections of his agent training to wrench back his focus. Find her. Find her now!

In addition to scanning faces rapid fire, he also watched for anyone acting suspiciously or running from the scene. Every man on his phone was a possible conspirator. Every rush of movement was a possible clue to the event in motion that was undercutting the precarious cliff upon which he stood. He spotted a man in uniform off to the side of the crowd speaking rapidly into a cell cellphone. Oh god, what if she had been arrested? Cold terror poured down his back, leaving him shivering, alone in the crowd and no longer able to draw on the mental resources he needed to save her. He had lost. 

A voice cut through the chaos in his mind at last. “Seven! Over here!” 

Tears burned behind his eyes, forcing him to squint to see her, head snapping towards the source of the voice, but she was standing with a small crowd on the hill, waving to him. All else forgotten, he shoved several people out of his way, earning insults in multiple languages, until he reached her and threw his arms around her shoulders. 

“MC! There you are. Oh god, I thought I had lost you!” Luciel pressed his face into her shoulder, breathing hard and barely keeping himself from sobbing in her arms. 

“Oh, Seven! I’m sorry I lost the cat. I just got excited. I haven’t seen fireworks like this since a festival a few years ago!” 

That’s what she was worried about. He’d almost lost her and… God, it didn’t matter at all. She was here and safe and real. He shook his head against her. “It’s OK babe. I’ll gladly win you another one if you want. I’ll win you everything you want.” Sure that he was no longer in danger of crying and that his mask was back in place, he pulled away from her just enough to look into her endlessly beautiful eyes. “All that matters is that we’re together.” 

“Of course, silly! We’re going to be together forever. Let’s watch the rest of the show, okay?” 

He stood behind her with his arms wrapped around her midsection, nuzzling into her hair, savoring the last vestiges of sea air that lingered upon it. Everything about her was soft and warm, and his earlier fears sloughed off of him like a shed skin. As he gazed at the temporary constellations of light cascading around them, he tried to remember the last time he had seen fireworks. A dusty memory pulled itself up from a corner of his mind. He and his brother had snuck out one night to watch a distant firework show together after their mother had fallen into a drunken slumber. The lights were so tiny and far off, flickering glimmers of color dancing on the horizon, but they both had found it mesmerizing back then. Those shimmering lights made him feel like there was magic in the world beyond their little home, and had given him hope. 

He couldn’t lose someone again. 

He waved his left arm in front of her playfully. “Give me your phone, MC. Just for a minute.”

MC tilted her head quizzically. “Why?”

Luciel kept his tone playful. “I’m just going to update it. It won’t take long.”

“Why don’t you watch the fireworks?” 

“I will sweetie, don’t worry.” 

She hadn’t even updated it recently. His joke suddenly became a real security nightmare. Well, the actual update would have to wait until tomorrow. In moments he’d set her phone to send his own device regular GPS updates. There were other things he could do to a phone too… but that would be an invasion of privacy… but, if she wasn’t bothering to keep it updated… A few taps later and he had full monitoring capability for all activity on her phone. It was only prudent. If she got lost, she wouldn’t be able to communicate in the local language, and going to the wrong people for help could get her kidnapped or arrested. Yes, he was only taking logical precautions. 

Slipping the phone back into her pocket, he returned to his post. She laced her fingers with his when he wrapped his arms around her again, and he looked up just in time to catch the grand finale. 

She’d dropped the cat, his brain reminded him. She could drop her phone too. Or it could get stolen. 

Then…? 

They had to get back to the boat. They’d grab some food for the road, though there were still plenty of rations on the ship to get them to a quieter, far less policed, port to restock. She couldn’t leave the ship. Tonight had been fun, but this was never happening again. It had been too close.

He had to be strategic about this. As the last of the lights faded from the sky, he pressed himself against her, subtly grinding his hips against hers. Luciel brushed her hair back over her shoulder and whispered to her, his lips ghosting over the shell of her ear. “Babe. That was beautiful, but I want to see some real fireworks with you. Let’s go back to the boat, and we can end the night with a bang.” 

The plan backfired, as her soft giggles left him reeling. “But honey, we haven’t been on the Ferris wheel yet!” 

Shit. “Please, MC. I need you… We can come back tomorrow, okay?” His stomach burned as he lied to her so casually. He hated how easy it was. 

“Promise?” 

Thank you, God. He spun her around for a kiss, another lie dancing over his lips to hers. 

“Promise.” 

***

Luciel led his lover by the hand around and through the fading crowd of park patrons, through the fringes of the city, and back towards the dock where he’d stashed the boat. As they were turning the last corner, he paused. He had ignored his gut last time and almost lost her. It was worth at least taking an extra second to check the scene first.

“MC. Wait here, for just a second. Stay quiet.” Blessedly, she merely nodded at him. 

With every silent step taken, he found himself glancing back to make sure she hadn’t moved. Voices. He began to pick up low, clipped, businesslike chatter from the direction of the dock. These wouldn’t be thieves or smugglers then. No…

Creeping closer, he was able to confirm his fear. The local port authority had somehow already found his boat and were swarming all over and around it like flies around the newly deceased. 

There was nothing for it other than to get away from the scene and hope he could find another boat tomorrow. It might be safer to lay low somewhere here instead. He was good at negotiating and could… No, call it like it is, Luciel. He was good at lying and sweet talking, and he would find a way to make this work. 

He ushered her around the corner and back into safer territory, ignoring her confusion. “MC? How about instead of the boat, I find us somewhere nice with a real, soft bed, hmm?” 

“Oh? That sounds nice. Maybe we can get a room with a shower? A hot shower would be so nice right now. You could even join me…,” she purred at him. 

Good, she had no idea. Another lie, this one by omission and misdirection. Those were his favorite. 

They took a meandering path through the city. To her, it probably seemed random and tedious. To him, it was a dance. Avoid anywhere with police presence but not too obviously. Avoid showing your face to the CCTV. Lastly, avoid dangerous and dark spaces. The last thing he needed was to have to fight off a mugger and draw attention to them. 

Finally, he found somewhere that fit his parameters. This would be tough at this time of night, but he had no doubt he could find them a place to stay for a few nights while he got together everything he needed. 

MC gazed at him in wonderment as he knocked on a door, held a rapid-fire conversation in a language she didn’t know with a woman she couldn’t see. Moments later, he was pulling her down another street, juggling a pair of keys. “Success!” he said with a wink. 

Anyone else might have fallen for this. In the dim lights of distant lampposts, the building looked lovely. It was still obviously old and stately in style, but the darkness nearly hid the chipping paint and the slight sag to some parts of the building. Most people would wake up in the morning and try to demand their money back for the deception. For his needs, it was perfect. 

What mattered is that it had a bed, electricity, and by its slow descent into decay, a perfect cover. “Rather than the cramped ship, I thought we could stay here for a few days. We can do a little exploring or shopping tomorrow, maybe. There should be a shower in there if you wanted to take one, too,” he said, pointing to the bathroom. 

“Yes!! I love how thoughtful you are, Seveny. I’ll go check it out!” WIth that, she skipped towards the direction he had pointed. Good, that would give him time to secure the place without worrying her. A cursory glance showed him that it was a single story one bedroom apartment, yet still more spacious than he imagined most homes in the area were. It was built back before overcrowding was such an issue. The place had been kept clean, but even a new coat of paint couldn’t completely cover up its history and the damage it had endured naturally from being an old wooden building near the coast. 

His first task would be making sure all of the windows were locked and shuttered. In moments, though, he heard MC calling out to him. “Honey! I found the shower, but the controls are weird. Can you help me?” She was no sneaky seductress, and her real goal was clear from her tone. Hands clenched at his sides, he took several deep breaths. The place needed to be secured before he would be comfortable shedding his clothing and losing himself in her. How could he turn her down though? 

No. There was too much at risk. Securing their shelter was his top priority. He would just have to be firm. 

“707 to the rescue!” he called into the small restroom, as he was immediately greeted by the sight of his lover wearing only a towel. Even though he had seen her in less, he still drank in the sight of her, and it left him reeling. “L-let me see this shower, and I’ll get it going for you.” 

Looking up at him through her eyelashes, she asked, coyly, “wouldn’t you like to join me?” Yes, yes he would. But he couldn’t. Finding out what it was like to share a shower with someone would have to wait. God, he could just imagine how good her skin would feel, warmed by the cascading water, her wet hair plastered to her shoulders just so…

“I… I was going to make sure the bed was made and ready for us when you got out of the shower, and see if I could get the heating going. I don’t want you to risk getting sick from the cold once you are out of there, and, more than anything, I’m looking forward to sharing a real bed with you, my love.” At least most of that was true. 

Disappointment flashed across her face for the briefest moment before her smile returned. “Okay! Shower sex isn’t really all it’s made out to be in movies, anyway,” she laughed. Huh. He knew she had had some experience before him but had trouble imagining her doing something so bold with another man. Well, this whole trip was about leaving the past behind so it didn’t matter. 

“I still would like to find that out some time for myself, but let’s get you a nice warm shower going for now, shall we?” The fixtures were newer than he’d expected, but still at least a decade old. After a bit of fiddling and getting one of his sleeves drenched, the shower was ready for her. He held his hand out towards the steaming shower, bowing dramatically, causing her to giggle. 

She slipped past him, her warmth so tantalizingly close that he could just reach out and make her his again, but he resisted. In his mind, he could see every possible way someone could slip into this apartment and ruin everything for them. Focus. “My hero!” she squeaked, kissing him on the cheek before entering the shower and closing the door behind her. After one last longing look at her blurred silhouette, he closed the bathroom door behind her and returned to his task. 

Thankfully, most of the windows still had functional locks, and the door was solid. For the one window that didn’t, he was able to rig something simple up to keep it from opening at all. Everything secured, he felt like he could finally breathe for the first time since he was on the boat. He focused on the sounds from the shower, reassuring him that MC was safe and enjoying herself.

Taking a moment to look around the apartment, he let a mental map of it settle into his mind so that he could navigate it in the dark if needed. The furniture was decent, also more modern than the rest of the place. The bed, though, was old and stately. Luciel occupied himself by making sure it would be as warm and comfortable as he had promised MC. 

Lastly, he tucked his bag away under the bed. Bringing his laptop bag to the amusement park had seemed like a paranoid and dangerous thing to do, but now he was infinitely glad he had listened to that side of his mind. He would have to pay it further heed as it had served him well so far. 

A metallic squeaking preceded silence from the shower. Moments later, she emerged in a cloud of steam, still wrapped in nothing but a fluffy blue towel. She was radiant and had an aura of peace and comfort to her. Having made sure their hideout was as safe as he possibly could, he refused to let fear keep him from enjoying her presence this time. “Enjoy the shower?”

“Yep! It was so nice. Even better than the one at Rika’s apartment, I think. Hey, you didn’t have a security camera in the bathroom there, did you? Or the bedroom?” She gave him a mysterious grin to go along with her strange line of questioning. 

“No. The only camera I had access to was one in the hallway outside of the apartment itself. Why do you ask?” He eyed her with curiosity as she strutted towards the bed, swaying her hips in a way that left him feeling lightheaded. 

Before she answered him, she settled into one of the plush chairs a few feet away from him. “Well… one night when I was at the apartment, all I could think about is that maybe you were watching me. Watching when I took a shower,” she said as she let the towel slip open, revealing her breasts and firm belly. “Watching me when I was in the bedroom.” She shifted in the chair until the rest of her was revealed, positioning one leg over the arm of the chair so that nothing was hidden from him. “That night I imagined that you could see me through a camera as I laid in bed thinking about you.” Sighing in pleasure, she ran a finger through her folds, teasing at the swollen bud hidden there. His jaw fell slack as he stared at her, and he subconsciously readjusted himself as his pants were no longer comfortable. “I touched myself just like this, imagining that you were in your bunker getting off to the show I put on for you.” 

Luciel took a step towards her. “God. Now I wished I’d thought to install more cameras there. I had no idea that even then…”

“That I wanted you then? Luciel, from the first time I saw a picture of you in the chatroom I wanted you to make me yours.” With her free hand, she blew him a kiss. “I fell in love with you sometime over those first few days, after we talked on the phone a few times. I’ve been yours from the moment we met in the chatroom.” His heart was hammering in his chest at her confessions, though his eyes were focused on the hand that she was using to play with herself still. 

“MC...I love you so much. I don’t even have words. You’ve saved me.” He was burning up, inside and out.

She let her hand drop and bounded up from the chair. “GOD, you are so cute, Seven! I’m never going to get tired of flustering you like this. You should see how hard you’re blushing. Come on, let’s try out that bed!”

She giggled and ran past him, bounding up onto the bed, which creaked dangerously. The sound amused her even more, it seemed, and she laughed wholeheartedly. If only he could record that sound without having to worry about it falling into the wrong hands. He would have to make her laugh every chance he had and brand the sound across his mind and soul. 

They spent the next hour or so seeing just how much noise the bed could make. Luciel urged her to keep quiet though as he hadn’t yet had a chance to scout out the area. The last thing he needed was to have their plans ruined by a noise complaint. When her moans of delight grew loud enough to trigger the paranoia rising in him like bile, he would kiss her deeply, swallowing up her sounds and taking anything she would give him. 

Stray thoughts of gagging her flitted through his mind, and he found himself thrusting into her even harder. The thought of a gag led to imaginings of her in bondage, tied up and helpless before him, begging him to let her cum. It was too much. He pinned her arms above her head, and she yelped in surprise as his hips slammed into her again and he filled her, their combined passion seeping into the sheets below as they rode out their bliss, kissing slowly. 

Would she enjoy being tied up by him? A dark whispering in his mind broke through his post-orgasmic haze. “She couldn’t get lost again if you chained her up now, could she?” The image of her chained to the sturdy wood of the bed, eager for his attention, his and only his, forever… it did have a certain sweetness to it, he had to admit. 

He rolled to the side, pulling her to him so she could lay comfortably on dry sheets, and wrapped his arms around her. “I love you, MC. I will always love you.” 

“I love you too, Seveny,” she muttered sleepily. 

Luciel found himself in and out of sleep for most of the night. Nightmares of his wife, his soulmate, not being there when he woke up, or being stolen from him, dogged him until just before sunrise when he finally collapsed from exhaustion, sleeping deeply for a few blissful hours.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our cute couple goes shopping, and Seven makes MC a present!  
> WOW this chapter ran long;;

Luciel woke up abruptly, the little light filtering in around the window shutters telling him he had slept past sunrise if nothing else. The thick, if slightly threadbare, blankets were twisted around him, leaving him uncomfortably warm. After a brief struggle with them, he rolled over to find that he was alone in the bed. That empty space triggered something in his brain, thoughts revving up uselessly, like tires spinning on ice. He stilled his breath, trying to stop the onslaught, straining his ears for an answer to his sudden fears. A shuffling sound reached him, that of a soft creature stretching lazily, followed by an exaggerated yawn.

Click. The engine shut off. Catastrophe averted. He let his head drop back to the pillow as he stared up at the wooden beams crossing the ceiling. She was safe. He needed to stop overreacting like this every time she was out of his sight. A lecture from years ago, probably delivered by Mrs. Vanderwood came to mind, about why people like him weren’t supposed to care about people like her. Why giving another person such power over you was a deadly mistake for an agent. Well, that’s not who he was anymore.

Before he could start getting his thoughts in order about their temporary living space and how to get back out to sea, his stomach reminded him loudly that he hadn’t planned for breakfast. Dinner had been cut short as well when he had rushed them out of the park. If he was hungry enough to notice it after years of barely sustaining himself on junk food between assignments, she had to be miserable. It wasn't fair to do that to her.

Luciel sloughed off the rest of the blankets, stretching and rubbing away some of the soreness in his legs. He'd gotten out of his daily exercise habits and found that certain activities were abusing his muscles in new and creative ways. Of the latter, he had no regrets.

His hunger was grumbling loudly enough that he was unwilling to risk provoking a different hunger in MC, so he dressed before leaving the bedroom. Catching a whiff of his shirt as he pulled it over his head reminded him that shopping for clothing was something to move further up his growing to-do list. Laundry got added to another file in his head, of things he hadn’t thought of before galavanting off on a grand lifelong adventure.

Old habits of his still lingered, and he couldn’t resist an urge to see what MC was doing by herself in the main part of the apartment. He crept out as quietly as he could, praying that the floor didn’t creak. Luciel admonished himself for not having checked that last night when he was securing the place. At least he knew the boards in front of the door were fairly loud, which would help alert him to an intruder. From what he could see, MC was reclining on the couch and playing with her phone, but he couldn’t see the screen from where he stood.

Old habits, indeed. His phone was in his hands before his brain bothered processing the moral implications of spying on her without having a sufficient reason beyond curiosity. She hadn’t tried to place any calls or send any messages. Good. She had tried to access the RFA app, though. Not good. It had failed, of course. For the last twenty minutes, she had been playing her favorite puzzle game. Normal.

Had she opened the RFA app out of habit, or had she honestly expected to reach someone? Why? He slipped back into the bedroom, leaning hard against the wall. His head was swimming, thoughts chasing each other in circles and leaving him to try to ponder what little he could pluck from them as they whirled past. Was she bored? Did she miss them? He didn’t. He couldn’t. A dark little feeling tugged at his heart, as though some wicked goblin was smirking at just out of sight, taunting him. Luciel wasn’t in the mood to try to put a name to whatever emotion it was that was trying to wash over him, preferring to ignore it. Mostly.

The RFA had been the closest thing Luciel had ever had to a family, even if they had only known the bubbly and oh-so-random seven-oh-seven. Still, they hadn’t exactly embraced his quirks, often leaving him feeling... tolerated.

She adored him. She loved him. She accepted him. The decision had been easy. The only way to be with her was to run away from his old life and any single thing that could tie him to his dark past, otherwise she would have been in danger every second of their brief lives together. But then, with no identity, a fistful of stolen money, and having snuck into another country illegally, he was putting her at risk all the same. He huffed out a derisive laugh as he wondered how many more laws he could break in a day. Freedom hung by a thin thread, but it was still freedom.

The dull hunger he had noticed earlier was usurped by hot, churning acid, leaving him swaying as he pulled himself together to meet her. She still needed to eat, no matter how he felt. Breakfast, take two! Strolling out into the living room, he called out, “honeyyy~ Should we go out and get some breakfast together? Maybe do a little shopping?”

Like a longed-for breeze on a sweltering summer day, the smile she met him with cast away the oppressive uncertainty that had been clinging to him since he’d woken up. She was worth any hardship, any crime.

***  
The city was a different being altogether in the daylight. They stuck to the quieter parts, stalking through it like creatures at the forest’s edge, curious and cautious. At least, that’s how Luciel saw it. For MC, it was an adventure. As she ambled between shops and stalls, holding up a dress to show him, or wondering over some other small delight, she didn’t notice as he herded her, keeping her only to the places he deemed safest. Luciel wrapped his arm around her waist, spinning her with him to set her sights somewhere new when she had strayed too close to the line of view of a man in uniform.

She enjoyed her freedom, and he reigned her in as much as he could without being too obvious, his eyes never leaving her. Her joy was intoxicating, but his heart was tainted with the fear that she could slip from her invisible leash at any moment, vanishing into this unfamiliar place. He remembered the previous night, the trampled plush cat, and the fact that tracking her by her phone relied on her keeping it with her at all times. No. There was a better way.

***

MC stood with her arms crossed, frowning at a shelf covered in dusty electronics and seemingly random wires and metal parts. Some of them looked familiar, but others were dismantled beyond recognition. She watched as Luciel carefully compared another set of circuits, muttering to himself. Though she was starting to grow a little bored after wandering through this glorified garbage dump for the last half hour, she had to admit that watching her boyfriend stalking through the aisles for the perfect… whatever it was, was endearing.

“I’m going to make you a gift,” he replied when she asked him why they were headed into such a strange store. She had squealed in delight, thinking about the sweet little robot cat he had gifted her with, and the robo-puppy too. It was a shame that they had left them behind, so she was excited to see what else her cute genius could come up with.

The detour here was taking longer than she had expected, but he had been patient with her while she shopped for dresses, and she could stand a few more minutes in this dull place. His antics as he darted from one shelf to another, bouncing between excitement and subtle frustration were fascinating enough on their own to make up for it.

She had never met anyone like Seven in her entire life. Though she loved playing along with his bizarre sense of humor, it was his eyes that had truly captured her. When his avatar had first popped up in the RFA chat room what felt like weeks ago, she had almost dropped her phone. From behind his striking and adorably messy red hair and those striped glasses, golden eyes pierced right through her defenses.

Other boys she’d been with just been… boys. Mindless and cocky things vying for her attention. They were fun at first, but it never took long to realize there was no real personality under what she had hoped was just a front. Luciel though... She could tell right away that he was like an onion. Beneath the outer layer of bluster and silliness, there was so much more, even if he wouldn’t show it to her. He had hinted that he was a hacker and a secret agent but refused to tell her the details, saying that it was in his past and didn’t matter. Was he like that secret agent from the movies, hunting down villains all over the world, outsmarting and outgunning them?

She covered her mouth to suppress a giggle at the thought of her boyfriend playing that role. Whatever sorts of missions his job had taken him on, she could be sure he didn’t share that particular character’s penchant for the ladies. It was clear that she was his first. Though, she was sure those eyes had left a string of broken hearts behind even if he didn’t realize it.

As much fun as she’d had with other lovers, she had never involved herself in the emotional side of things as no one had sparked any real feeling inside of her beyond attraction. The moment she had seen those eyes though, she started to get an inkling of what she had been missing out on all this time.

The thought of meeting someone in a chatroom then running away with them hardly a week later… she would have laughed and called a relationship like that a joke. But here she was, in a country where she didn’t speak the language, with a man she had fallen in love with in mere days. It was like being in a movie.

A sudden exclamation from her boyfriend brought her out of her musings. “Found it!”

She smiled at him as he gathered up a double handful of bits and pieces. “Oh good! I can’t wait to see what you make. Is it going to be like the robot kitty?”

Luciel walked over to her and leaned in to whisper conspiratorially, “not exactly… but I think you’ll still like it.” He dumped the parts on the countertop, to the annoyance of the cashier, but in a few moments, they were back outside in the sunlight.

MC took a deep breath full of fresh air and turned to Seven, asking, “where to next, handsome?” How something so simple could make him blush after the time they had spent together, she didn’t know, but it made her smile.

“Well, I need to find one more thing for your gift. It won’t take long, I promise!” After looking around for a moment, he said, “aha! I found what I need. Can you wait right outside of this shop? I promise I won’t be long. Please don’t go anywhere, OK?” She nearly rolled her eyes at his overprotectiveness, until she saw the shop towards which he was pointing. It was a jewelry shop. No one had ever bought her jewelry before! She could wait as long as he needed.

***  
MC lounged on the bed, idly poking at her phone from time to time, while Seven worked on her gift. She watched a bead of sweat roll down between his shoulders before vanishing under the back of his black tank top. Watching him work like this, a bundle of intensity and muscles, made her long for his attention. Not only that, but he’d kept his back to her the whole time he was working, and chased her away any time she got close, not wanting to spoil her surprise.

She couldn’t take it any longer. “Seven, are you almost done?”

“Almost! It’s tricky work but nothing I, the greatest genius to sail the seven seas, can’t accomplish!”

“Seven, I don’t think we’ve made it past one sea yet,” she laughed.

His shoulders seemed to tense up at her joke, but he didn’t reply. “Seveny~ Why don’t you come to bed with me? I’m getting awfully lonely over here.”

There was a long pause before he answered. “Please, babe. I’m almost done. I really want to get this finished as quickly as possible, so I can stop worrying about it. I mean so that I can give you this gift right away!”

“Okaaayyy,” she whined, rolling over on the rough comforter. She found herself tapping on the RFA app again, wondering if anyone was around. The chatroom was empty, again. Yoosung’s appearance the other day had surprised her as it seemed like no one was ever around since she and Seven had left. Scrolling up to see what she had missed, she saw a brief conversation between Jumin and Jaehee talking about what a good couple she and Seven were and how they were glad they had found each other. She missed the idea of getting to meet everyone at the party, but it was worth it to be with Seven. He was a good man, and she loved him dearly.

***  
Luciel had lost track of how much time he had spent on his gift for her, but seeing it there before him, completed, a solution to his biggest fear, filled him with pride. It was perfect. It would be proof that she was his. He had been keeping an eye on his phone while he worked and noticed her scrolling through the old chat room again. It irked him that she missed them and insisted on remaining in contact with them after he had sworn to cut off all ties to be with her. Well, it didn’t matter.

“Honey. Thank you so much for waiting. Your present is ready,” he called to her softly. She turned over and gave him a sleepy smile. He could feel the stiffness in his shoulders and the ache in his hand from working for hours melting away.

“I can’t wait to see what it is!” MC sat up and patted the bed next to her, effortlessly summoning him to her side. He tucked the newly crafted item into his pocket for the moment, before climbing up into the bed with her. Those lips he had been longing to feel against his for hours were right in front of him, and he let himself indulge.

Though he hated to break the kiss, the itchy feeling that had been building in the back of his mind for the last day demanded his attention. He took a deep breath, mustering up his usual bravado, and boasted, “it is time at last for God Seven to bestow upon you a gift most dear! Close your eyes for me, okay?” She did so, holding out her hands expectantly. Instead, he reverently cupped one of her smooth calves in one palm, so warm and soft. He reached into his pocket, pulling out a golden anklet which he closed around her ankle. As it clicked into place, Luciel let out the breath he hadn’t realized he was holding, and the sensation in the back of his mind faded to nearly nothing. “You can open your eyes now,” he purred sweetly.

MC sat up, her hands going to the anklet immediately so she could inspect it. “It’s really pretty…” Her voice trailed off as she ran her hands over the cylindrical golden band. “Not what I expected, but...” She turned it about and tugged at it for a moment then frowned up at him. “Luciel, what is this? I don’t see a way to take it off.”

Luciel chuckled. “Nothing to worry about! It’s waterproof and super sturdy! It looks so pretty on you, sweetie!”

“I mean, why can’t I remove it though? Is there a trick to it?”

Why did she have to focus on that? He reached a trembling hand towards her. “W-well, sweetie. Think of it like… our wedding ring.”

Her hands left the anklet, and she shrugged at him in disbelief. “Seven! You didn’t even ask me to marry you first!”

The ground buckled under Luciel.

His foundation shifted, canting hard to the side, leaving him unsteady.

He felt his stomach plummet down half a mile and collapse in on itself.

“MC. We ran away so we could spend the rest of our lives together,” he said flatly, brooking no argument. This was a fact. This was the only fact that mattered.

She was looking at him blankly. He… must have done this wrong. It was his fault for being so clueless in love. He could fix this, right? “No. Wait. You’re right. I should have asked you first. I’ll do it right this time, I’ll…”

Her voice cut him off abruptly. “Luciel? When are we going back to the amusement park?”

Throat burning, he forced himself to tell her the truth. “I don't really think that we should. Remember, neither of us exists. If something happens and either of us gets caught, we'll never be together again.”

“What do you mean? Wouldn't we just get sent home?”

Sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose, he explained the situation as gently as he could. “Honey...you know what would happen if I get taken in by the authorities right? We talked about this. It's a little more complicated than that. I have to stay in hiding from the Agency and the government. Even you would get arrested since you...they wouldn't know where to send you.”

“So we're just going to stay inside forever?” MC climbed out of bed, annoyance showing her every movement, sharp and bristling.

Unconsciously following her, he continued to plead. “No...I mean...we were originally going to sail around the world on our ship for the rest of our lives. We'll get back out to sea soon. It's just dangerous here in a big city. There are lots of other great places we can go!”

“But the whole reason we came here was for the Ferris wheel! Instead, you want me to stay in this dingy apartment?”

“It’s just too dangerous!” Calm down, stop yelling, you idiot! You’re only making everything worse! Deep breaths...

“No. I’m going out. I saw a convenience store nearby. At least let me get some snacks and comfort items. I want a few minutes to myself.”

Unable to stop the arrogance from lacing his voice, he asked, “how are you going to pay for it?”

As though it were the most obvious thing, she stated, “with my credit card.”

Luciel leaped off the bed as if it were on fire, gesturing in pure disbelief, his arms shaking before him, hands upturned and grasping at the air. “This! Your naïveté is exactly why it’s too dangerous!” His voice came out louder and higher than he meant to and he cringed inwardly at the sound of it. “If anyone is looking for you, they can track you down by a credit card transaction. That’s incredibly easy to do.” He wasn’t ready to tell her that her card wouldn’t work anyway since her bank either thought she was deceased or that her account had been a glitch in the first place with no record of the person it was linked to.

Arms crossed defiantly, MC shouted right back at him. “Seven! You sound insane! I love you, and I’m glad to be here with you, but you can’t expect me to stay here like a caged bird. I’m going out.”

He bolted to her side, frantically pawing at his pockets, pulling out a fistful of crinkled currency. “Okay, okay. No, you’re right. But here, please use this instead of your card.” She frowned dubiously at the money he offered her, but sorted it out carefully and folded it into her wallet. “Just don’t go down any dark alleys. Keep your head down so that no security cameras can pick up your face. Don’t look around like you are a tourist because…”

“Luciel!” His body stiffened when she cut him off again. God, how was everything falling apart so fast? “I’m walking like five blocks to a convenience store to get dinner and snacks. I’m going to be fine.”

“You’ll be fine. Of course. Okay. I’ll be here. I love you, MC.”

“I love you too, Seven.” Her imperious tone, as though she were speaking to a child, made him cringe and crumple internally. The door slammed behind her, and he stared at it for several heartbeats, his hand unconsciously reaching towards that wooden barrier. She would come back. She would come back.

Get ahold of yourself, man! This is why you made the anklet! In moments he was sitting on the bed with his laptop humming to life atop his crossed legs. The tracking program he had built showed a cursory map of the city streets with a heart-eyed cat face emoji headed away from their safehouse. She was heading towards the convenience store just as she had said.

The path she took held no particular dangers that he had seen on their way back from shopping, but it wasn’t enough. It was no effort to cross-reference the GPS program with local infrastructure, tap into the local CCTV system, and… voila! Next, to the tracking program, he pulled up several new smaller windows with different views along the roads she would most likely walk along. Luciel breathed a sigh of relief, feeling in control of the situation again. The only other person he spotted was an elderly woman who strolled out of the frame after turning a corner.

Stupidly, the store’s cameras weren’t on the grid. They must be hardwired to a local DVR. Their alarm system was accessible to him, but that did him no good. At least he would know if there was a break-in happening while she was there.

He was staring longingly at the empty street nearest to the entrance to the store when one of his other programs pinged to life. She was trying to use her phone. He had secured it well enough that no one but him could use it to track her, so he felt reasonably safe letting her have access to it so she could call him for help if she needed. That’s all she would be able to do with it, it now functioning more like a walkie-talkie, only able to successfully call him. Well, and she could play a few games on it too.

The text on his screen made no sense. She was opening up the RFA app. MC had to know that it wouldn’t work. He had told her that he had banned them both from it permanently.

[MC has entered the chatroom]

  
Yoosung: MC! How’s it going?

  
MC: Yoosung? Oh man, I’ve missed you! How is school?

  
Yoosung: I slept through my class today T_T

  
Yoosung: Stayed up too late playing LOLOL.

MC: You dork.

  
Yoosung: Are you two lovebirds having an amazing time?

  
MC: I guess. Seven is acting kind of weird.

  
Yoosung: Seven is always weird! But I know that he loves you more than anything.

  
MC: I know.

  
Yoosung: You guys are so cute together. The perfect couple, really. I’m so jealous T_T

  
MC: Um. Thanks.

  
Yoosung: It’s like you are on an eternal honeymoon. So coooool!

  
MC: Yeah! Okay, I’m going to log off now. I’ll talk to you later, I hope.

  
Yoosung: Byeee~ Have a great time, you guys!

  
[MC has left the chatroom]

She wasn’t happy.

She thought he was acting weird.

Luciel ripped his glasses off his face and scrubbed at his eyes with a dingy sleeve, leaning in close to try to keep an eye on the GPS signal. Everything was an ugly blur between his nearsightedness and the tears clinging to his eyelashes. He reached to this chest for his cross, an old gesture that would comfort him when the anxiety was too much to bear, his hands closing around nothing. Instead, he combed his fingers through his greasy red hair fitfully.

Why was nothing going right?

A hand wandered towards his missing cross again, instead twisting in the fabric of his shirt as he willed himself to calm the fuck down. His heart was pounding beneath his fist, the sound echoing in his ears, and he let it drown out the ugly, jealous thoughts that were growing within him. Several shaky breaths later, he caught a glimpse of her walking past the camera by the convenience store. God, she was finally headed back! Luciel blotted his eyes again and watched the cat emoji make its way back the direction it had traveled minutes ago. The cameras showed that her path was clear.

She couldn’t know he’d been crying, especially since she already thought he was behaving strangely. Grabbing the laptop in one hand so he could continue monitoring her progress, he ducked into the bathroom, turning on the cold tap with one hand and carefully splashing water in this face to cool his eyes.

He glanced up at the mirror to see if he had been successful and paused at the sight of his reflection. His eyes weren’t as red or puffy as he had feared, but there were dark bags under them, and his pupils looked wider than he thought they should be. The red mop on his head looked worse than usual, sweaty and matted. Yeah… trying out the shower thing would be a good idea later.

Squinting at the screen again, he could see that she was very nearly back home. Luciel sighed in relief and set his laptop down on the toilet seat while drying his face and making an attempt to sort his hair out somewhat. Hopefully, MC had picked up a brush while she was at the convenience store. His computer in hand, he headed back out to the living room and didn’t stop watching her indicator on the map until she opened the door.

What was he supposed to say to her? The “relationship” books that the Agency had recommended were just shitty texts about how to get into someone’s pants. They said nothing about how to reconcile with your wife when… when… God, he would give anything to be able to hack into her brain and understand what she was thinking or even fix things somehow. Fixing someone’s mind. That was … an unhealthy line of thought. Free will was what made a person who they were.

Luciel closed his laptop and gazed up at her, scanning her face for any clues. She didn’t look angry anymore. Maybe just … tired? He replayed one of their happier moments in his mind, the two of them arm in arm on the deck of the ship, feeling like they owned the world. Slowly, he smiled, and his heart leaped as a small smile played over her lips as well.

“Oh, Luciel. I’m sorry I was angry with you earlier.”

She forgave me! Everything will be okay! “No problem! I was unreasonable. I understand that now. Did you have a good time at the store, cutie?”

MC bounded over to her lover, plastic grocery bags dangling from her fingertips. She wrapped her arms around him, chin resting on his head, and his glasses were knocked askew as her breasts pressed against his face. A fireworks show to rival last nights went off in his head as the chemicals in his brain fired up to flip his entire mode from despair to pure elation. She still loved him. This soft, warm, creature had flown back home to him, wrapping him in a heavenly embrace. He wound his arms around her, holding her tight as he nuzzled between her breasts, reveling in the giggles she responded with.

“Seveny!” she managed through her laughter. “Let go of me for a sec and I’ll show you what I got!”

“Dun wanna,” he said, muffled by her chest. She laughed harder and started trying to wiggle away from him, but he held her fast.

“Silly! Some of this stuff needs to go in the fridge!” He faintly heard the grocery bags being shaken for emphasis behind his head.

Luciel took a deep breath, filling his every pore with her scent, savoring this sweet moment. “Let it spoil. I don’t care. I just want you.”

MC pulled away from him a bit more firmly, saying, “yes, and I want to eat the sushi I bought just now. Please?”

He finally relented, letting her go before pawing playfully at the bags. “Sushi! Nice! What else did you get, hmm?”

They sat on the floor together as she pulled out each item one at a time. There was enough sushi for both of them to dine on, a few bags of chips, including his favorite, and some other snacks. Blessedly, she’d picked up a hairbrush and some other toiletries as well. That still meant that at least the clerk at the store knew she was traveling from out of town, but hopefully, he wouldn’t think anything of it.

Among the items she had purchased were a few battery powered candles, flickering LEDs providing a romantic atmosphere for their dinner. They sat on the floor, feeding each other sushi by candlelight, stealing a few kisses here and there, giggling together. It was pure bliss.

Luciel had known, in theory, what love was, and what it could be like, for many years. The comfort and purity of this moment though… He was floating, flying, soaring beyond the heavens, his heart full of helium and bright as a star.

Dinner finished, he stood up and stretched, vertebrae low in his back popping loudly. Then he extended a hand towards MC to help her up, pulling her to him afterward for a squeezing hug. “Luciel. I’m so sorry again for being angry with you earlier. Can I make it up to you tonight?” To his surprise, he felt his already exhausted muscles tense. Their earlier walk, working on her gift...none of the physical tasks of the day had tired him out, but his shoulders and jaw had been clenched from stress most of the day, and it had left him feeling worn out.

“This candlelit dinner and your kisses were enough for me, babe. Besides, I forgave you before the words had even left your lips. Sevencat just needs a bath and a nap tonight. Meoowww.”

She giggled at him and his, admittedly awful, cat impression. “That’s perfect. You seemed tense today, so how about a massage after your shower? No ulterior motives, I promise!”

Oh, she didn’t mean… Luciel blushed. He’d never been given a massage before. Apparently, they were good for the sort of thing he was suffering from. “Oooh! I would love that. I’ll be out in no time, okay? Thank you, sweetie.”

As the hot water cascaded over his body, taking away some of the stress of the day already, he found his mind was wandering to places he wished it wouldn’t go. He remembered the sight of his brother, stark white hair, and those strangely colored eyes filled with pure hatred. Where was he now? Was he safe? Was he happy? Without 707 there to continually bolster their defenses, was the RFA safe too?

He rested his forehead against the cool tile wall as the water beat down upon his back, droplets clinging to his hair for a moment before running down his face. He couldn’t get the image of Saeran’s sneer and hate-filled green eyes out of his mind. Saeran had every right to hate him, but Seven needed to stop thinking about him. His teeth rattled in his braincase as he pulled his head back before letting gravity slam it back into the tile wall. It didn’t hurt, really, and he felt like the image was shaking loose, or blurring in his mind. Again, though this time left the thin skin between his skull and the wall aching.

What the hell was he doing? Luciel finished washing his hair, and stepped out of the shower, groping around the blurry shapes for the hairbrush MC had bought earlier, but he’d forgotten to bring it in with him. He toweled himself off and headed for the bedroom.

MC was sitting on the bed with her legs tucked under her, phone in hand. She had moved the little LED candles into the room, so it was lit up with faux candle orange and cellphone blue, the clashing colors dancing over her form in an oddly enchanting way. Once she saw him, she beckoned him over to the bed eagerly. He flopped down onto it facefirst in front of her, sighing into the sheets, causing her to bounce on the bed and giggle.

Her deft hands roamed over his shoulders, pressing here and there, seeking. “Seveny… you seriously are tense. I hope I didn’t stress you out too much tonight. Either way, I can fix this though. Just relax and breathe easy.”

Luciel melted into the bed as she soothed away his aches and pains, muttering little endearments here and there. He fell asleep in moments after she had finished and curled up next to him. In his dreams, they danced together in space, gathering their favorite stars up to tuck away into jars they would take home so that only they could enjoy that light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (I solemnly swear I'm up to no good- I hope God Seven forgives me)


	6. Chapter 6

One of the perks having spent years working for the Agency and suffering from what Luciel eventually realized was untreated depression, was that his body had grown used to functioning on sporadic sleep and junk food. Still, as his stomach rumbled, he found himself fantasizing about the boxes of MREs and other shelf-stable foods he had stowed away on their ship. A ship that was probably in the hands of the port authority or the local police. What a waste. Somewhere out there was a lucky bastard sitting in an office with an entire box of Honey Butter Chips to himself.

With a defeated sigh, he mentally added another tab to the Luciel-is-an-idiot file. He had spent a substantial amount of his remaining money on their ship and those rations and had brought next to nothing with him for resupplying or currency exchange. In a rare fit of naïvety, he had imagined them stopping off in small ports and taking up odd jobs under the table to support themselves, giving them a chance to explore new places.

Instead, Genius Hacker 707 was now Random Pickpocketer number 289,374,928,735. At least it offered about the same level of anonymity.

Some of the money that he “earned” was tucked away at the bottom of his bag, his secret savings account for another ship. He should have been saving more, but he had discovered a deep love for spoiling MC with pastries and treats. The verve with which she savored them and the affection she showered upon him, in turn, invigorated him so much more than even his beloved Dr. Pepper. So, in turn… he could deal with the hours of hunger between the sparse meals he consumed to keep her happy. “Quit your grumbling,” he muttered to his very opinionated stomach.

They hadn’t fought again since the night she had stormed out to the convenience store, as she was able to maintain a measure of freedom, and he wasn’t as terrified of losing her. For him, the anklet was his magnum opus. That broiling, itchy feeling that had been building in his skull and burrowing through it had receded to nearly nothing. She hadn’t mentioned it again, though he had caught her picking at it from time to time when she thought he wasn’t watching.

He was always watching. His eyes starved when they weren’t festing upon her. Soon though, it would just be the two of them again, surrounded by sea and stars. It had to be soon.

Every time she left the apartment, he tracked her every step, always ready to spring to the rescue if anyone dared to lay a hand on her. His heart couldn’t take much more of this stupid anxious feeling. He could barely even relax when she was asleep, fearing he would wake up and find himself alone in the apartment.

Eventually, MC would tire of the same few convenience stores and shops, of this cramped and ugly part of the city, and their apartment. In turn, he feared she would tire of him. They had to get back out to sea.

***

MC snorted out a half-hearted laugh as her foot sent an empty coffee cup careening down an all-too-familiar street. Though she had been enjoying being able to explore the city a little bit more, she tired of the same shops, the same streets, even the same faces. Though she could technically go wherever she wanted, it never felt like she was entirely free. As if on cue, she felt her phone vibrate fitfully in her pocket. With a sigh, she pulled it out and answered the only person who ever called her.

“Is everything OK, Seven?”

She heard him take a deep breath before replying in a frantic rush. “MC. You aren’t headed towards the supermarket, are you?”

About two blocks in front of her she could see the facade of the exact building he had mentioned.

As hard as she tried to deny it, too many phone calls and strange messages from her boyfriend were starting to paint a clear picture for her. She was sure that he was tracking her somehow. She had felt her mental map of the city growing smaller every day. Don’t go down this road, it’s dangerous. Don’t go to that store; I don’t like the looks of the owner. Now she was to avoid the supermarket?

Her hand trembled as she held the phone to her ear. She hadn’t originally planned on putting her fears to the test, but part of her had to know. Hopefully, her voice wouldn’t shake too much, and he wouldn’t think anything of the pause before she said, “of course not, sweetie. I’m just out for a walk.”

Though he replied in the span of a breath, to her, it felt like ages. “Okay! There’s been a lot of police activity around there lately since they got robbed two days ago, so you need to avoid it. It’s better if you turn around and head back. It’s already been 11.5 minutes.”

Had he believed her? “You know it, Seveny! I’ll be home in a few minutes. Love you!”

“I love you too! Please, head back soon and be careful.”

His concern sounded so earnest, and she shuffled her feet, feeling guilty already for what she was about to do. “I will. I’ll see you soon.” Luciel’s smiling avatar looked up at her from the phone, lovingly, accusingly.

MC urged her suddenly leaden feet forward. She felt stupid for being so scared. There was no reason to be afraid. Luciel was a kind man, and he had been nothing but sweet and loving to her. She was sure he wasn’t really dangerous like he said. At least not to her. Yet the idea of lying to him, of performing this little test made her stomach clench.

Then again, if he was willing to track her and keep her on a virtual leash, she wasn’t sure what he was capable of doing. With another step, she decided she was set on her path and continued onward towards the building before her. She noted that there wasn’t a single police car in the lot. Seven had been worrying over her for nothing.

***

Though he wasn’t entirely satisfied with her answer, once he got off the call with MC he went straight back to work to take his mind off of it. His lithe fingers danced over the silent keys of his laptop, the program building and evolving at his command. He had started this project on a whim, almost as a joke, but it had become a necessity.

A little voice in his head reminded him that he should also be working on crafting them usable identities or figuring out the money thing and securing them a new boat but… This project, this little experiment, kept dragging him back in. How far could he take it, he wondered?

Luciel jerked his head up and stared blankly at his screen. A long line of the same character was marching along, starting on its third continuous row, and it kept going until he mustered the will to send a signal from his brain to his hand, releasing the errant key.

This wasn’t… logical.

Tired as he was, it was nothing like the conditions he’d worked under for years, yet his stomach churned like a cement mixer, and he struggled to keep his head up on a neck made of rubber. In his mind, he heard Vanderwood’s voice chastising him for only being able to work properly with a gun to his head. Maybe that was the case — conditional genius. Surely by now, he was far enough ahead on this program that he could get a nap…

He snapped his head up again as he remembered that long moment before MC had replied to him on the phone, and adrenaline sliced through his veins as he scrambled to bring his full attention back to the tracking app.

Her icon wasn’t there. His heart hammered as he scrolled through the logs to find out why, swearing under his breath and cursing himself for being weak enough to fall asleep when she needed him to protect her.

A short animation of the route she had taken after their earlier phone call played before him. And again. He watched it several times as if somehow it would be different on the next loop.

Given her earlier response, maybe he should have expected this, though seeing the gun pointed at you didn’t stop the bullet from tearing through your flesh. Days ago he had discovered a flaw in his tracking system. Large commercial buildings and areas of high cellular traffic caused the signal to be iffy at best.

Luciel reached for his long-gone cross again, his arms tensing in frustration when his hands found nothing to grip. He hissed a breath through gritted teeth as his fist made contact with the table, causing his laptop to dance across its surface. Snatching his hand back as if it had betrayed him, he cradled it against his chest as it throbbed and ached. At least the oafish gesture had released some of his physical tension, but his brain was still wound up tight. Fuck! Why would she lie to him? She was too kind and pure to deceive him out of spite, he was sure of it. It couldn’t be that there was someone else, as he had never seen her talking to another person in the hours he had spent poring over the CCTV feeds.

He held his breath as his mind assembled his collection of data and collated it into an idea he wasn’t ready to compile. She was starting to figure out that he was tracking her and was testing him to prove it. Any creature would test its bonds once it realized it was trapped.

He eyed his phone, debating if he should call her bluff. No, he had trained for situations like this. Watch and wait. Look for patterns. Settling back into that familiar mindset, he felt like he was regaining some control over the situation. Though he had planned on saving it for a special occasion, he sighed in satisfaction at the crack and hiss as he flicked open his last Dr. Pepper. The trusty old Doctor would keep him awake until she was home safe.

***

Static. Luciel blinked dully several times as both legs, and an arm reported in with nothing but static. A dull and constant beep worked its way through his brain fog, adding to his confusion.

The annoying sound was found to be his laptop, yelling in distress because he was hunched over it, drooling into its poor keyboard. Fantastic. Upon lifting his head, he felt a tugging sensation at the corner of his mouth where his sleeve had briefly stuck to him, dried saliva forming a temporary bond between man and high-tech fabric.

He had to get feeling back into his legs before they decided to die off entirely from lack of blood flow. Was that a thing that could happen? He remembered a rumor from the academy of one of the other students managing to cripple themselves from overwork. Rumor or not, he rocked himself backwards until he was sprawled unceremoniously on the floor, legs aching as his blood sluggishly made its way back into his limbs.

Dark wood beams against a whitewashed ceiling filled his vision. He wasn’t in the bunker.

Shit.

Sirens blared in his head as his mind rebooted back into reality’s OS. He struggled to roll over onto his good arm and push himself back up, but his legs still weren’t listening to him. Just as he started to make progress, the door opened abruptly, and his arm gave out from underneath him causing him to crash into the floor again.

“Seveny? What are you doing on the floor? Are you alright?” His vision was filled with the face of his beloved (liar), as she dropped to his side and patted his face gently, frowning in concern. “Oh god, your eyes look so tired, Luciel. You need to rest. I’ll get you some water too.”

He kept his eyes on those dark beams as her footsteps receded, and the burst of anger that had overtaken him drained away with each soft padding of her feet across the ancient boards.

How could he hold her lie against her when he was crafting a far more disgusting deception?

His vision blurred briefly as he lifted his head to let it drop back to the floor. The soft sounds of MC shuffling around the apartment, pulling back the covers on the bed for him, were the only things holding back the tide of self-loathing that was roaring within him. How terrible could he really be, though, if an angel like her loved him? Lied to him. Loved him.

He let his head drop again to stop the skipping track in his brain.

***  
MC held the glass with two shaking hands as she watched it fill up with water. There were too many thoughts spinning around in her mind for her to process any of them individually. Mostly though, she was just worried about Seven. She had assumed that those times where she had woken up in the middle of the night to an empty bed were the exception, but she found herself wondering if he had been sleeping at all. The one night she had slipped out of their room to see what he was up to, he was at his computer, hacking or coding or something. He had told her to go back to bed and that he would be there soon, so she did just that.

She turned off the tap and set down the glass, leaning heavily against the flaking countertop. No matter what was going on, if he was tracking her, if he was up to something strange, she still loved him dearly. He had saved her life once, and she would do everything she could to rescue him in return.

Walking back into the main room, she found that he was still laying on the floor. “I’ll be right back, okay?” she said as she ducked into the bedroom to leave the glass on the nightstand. She returned and knelt next to him, working her arm under his neck to cradle his head. “Seven, you look so sleepy. Let me help you to bed, please?” He grunted in reply and let her help him to a sitting position. From there, she offered her hands to him to help him up, but he waved them off and got up on his own.

As he shuffled off to the bedroom, she followed him closely, afraid he might stumble. “Honey, please lay down and get some rest,” she said, holding a reassuring hand to his back as she steered him towards the bed. He grumbled a reply but sat down hard on the matress, making it creak. She handed him the glass of water, and he took a few sips from it before handing it back to her and laying down on his back. Maybe it was her guilt from testing him earlier, but she felt like she was walking on eggshells, that any wrong word or move could upset him. Tucking her feet up under her, she settled down quietly into the big chair near the bed.

This room… It’s not that the apartment was terrible, but she felt like an interloper here. She rubbed her finger along an indentation in the wooden arm of this threadbare chair, sure that someone else in another lifetime had done the same. It was worn smooth and shiny, like a worry stone. Her favorite spot on the couch fit her perfectly, so she imagined the other woman who had sat there for hours, maybe doing embroidery work or some other craft.

As they slowly made the space their own, some of the discomfort had faded away, but at the same time, she was starting to wonder if they were going to live out the rest of their lives here. Seven hadn’t mentioned going back to the boat in several days. The rent here must be cheap, so they could probably live here easily on whatever Seven had brought with him. As confining as the boat was, though, she started to miss the smell of the ocean air and the feeling of freedom the endless horizons gave her.

Staring at the yellowing ceiling was granting her no comfort, so she glanced over at the exhausted redhead. His eyes were still open, focused on nothing it seemed. She started as he suddenly asked her, “what are you thinking about right now?”

“I’m thinking about the ocean, and that I’m worried about you. Please try to get some rest. I feel like you haven’t been sleeping at all.”

Seven raised a hand, waving her concerns away. “Aw, don’t worry about that, sweetie. Weird hours are normal for me! Great hacker gods can’t sleep because the world needs them all the time!”

The chipper tone in his voice soothed her heart a little. “Well, you don’t have to do that stuff anymore now, right? You need to take care of yourself. I love you too much to see you suffer like this.”

“I’m fine, I promise. But if it will make you feel better, I’ll try to get some sleep as long as you stay here by my side.”

Well, that was easy enough. She had no desire to test her leash again and wanted to watch over Luciel as he slept. “Of course!”

“Can you talk to me a bit more while I relax? Anything at all. I just want to hear your voice.”

MC talked a little about the game she had been playing on her phone, but her words trailed off as she lost certainty that even he would quickly get bored of hearing out its intricacies. “I wonder what the rest of the RFA is up to?” she mused.

“They meant a lot to you, huh?” he asked, drowsily.

She hadn’t thought about it, but he was right. “Honestly? I’ve had a lot of friends come and go in my life, but none of them felt as genuine as you and your group. Besides, it was because of the RFA that I found the love of my life!” Though... it was actually because of his brother, wasn’t it? Reopening that wound sounded like a bad idea.

Thankfully, he broke the awkward silence that was descending upon her. “Good. I’m glad you have good memories of them.”

“Now it’s up to us to create new memories! Have you thought about where we will travel to next, Luciel?”

Another pause. “Go next? I… hadn’t thought about it. Are you getting bored here? You aren’t thinking of leaving on your own, right?” She saw his body stiffen as his voice grew tenser. “It’s pretty safe here. B-but… I’ll think about it.”

“Luciel? I thought you said you had traveled all over the world. Why are you so afraid of it?”

He sat up suddenly, looking at her. “Why am I afraid of the world? _Because_ I’ve seen so much of it. Look. I’ve seen terrible things, MC. I know what people are like behind their masks. There was this politician I respected at one point. He was a great humanitarian and worked hard to protect the environment. When I was assigned a job related to his campaign, I hoped I would have a chance to use my skills for good for a change.” Luciel sighed, seeming to deflate in front of her. “Instead, I was recruited to destroy his opponent in every way. I had to plant pictures of little girls on his hard drive. Someone, somewhere took those fucking pictures,” he spat.

“I did what I was told because Seven is a good boy and always gets his work done. However, I did some digging on the man who would hire someone destroy the life of someone who dared to run against him. It was worse. You’re too bright to hear what I found out, but it shook my faith in humanity. That was one of my first jobs. I had to see that when I was… maybe 16? That’s only the scum floating on the surface of the well of human horribleness. That’s the world I want to protect you from, don’t you understand?” With that, he fell back to the bed, staring vaguely up at the ceiling.

She could barely comprehend what he had told her. The agency was involving him in things like that when he was still a kid himself? “I’m… sorry.”

“You don’t need to apologize, MC. Instead, stay by my side. Let me protect you from the world. That’s all I ask.”

When he said it like that, his fear, his actions, seemed reasonable. “I will,” she whispered fiercely. He needed protecting too, and for someone to show him that the world had good in it too, and love.

“Thank you,” he said sleepily as he rolled to his side. She hoped beyond hope he would finally get some solid sleep.


	7. Chapter 7

MC watched as Luciel rested - if she could call it that. Since she had helped him get into the big bed, he would be quiet and calm for several minutes, then flop around the bed like an angry beached fish, grumbling to himself.

It had been quite a while since his last battle with whatever inner demons he struggled with, and she let her finger hover over the RFA app, measuring his breaths against her own before she tapped the icon.

From what he had told her, it shouldn’t have been working at all, but apparently, he hadn’t shut her out of it completely, or he had messed something up. It was rare that anyone was around to chat, but having just a little bit of outside human contact made her feel less lonely when she saw their avatars pop up.

[MC has entered the chatroom]

MC: Hey guys, how’s it going?

Yoosung: Oh hey, MC! Whatchu up to?

MC: I guess just killing some time while Seven naps. You?

Yoosung: That’s so cuuuute.

Jaehee: It is important to get plenty of rest. Are you both eating well too?

MC: Yeah, I just grabbed some dinner from the convenience store.

Yoosung: You guys are eating nothing but convenience store food out there?  
Yoosung: That’s not right!

Jaehee: You need to take better care of yourself.

MC: I guess.

Yoosung: Where are you guys now, anyway?

“Hey, MC.” She scrambled to keep her phone from falling to the floor as her body jolted in shock. Dammit, she thought Luciel had been asleep! Before she could answer, he continued, tone flat, voice gruff with exhaustion. “What are you doing?”

One hand to her chest in a vain gesture to calm her pounding heart, she answered,“I’m playing a game.” God, her voice sounded so small and stupid. There was no way he was going to believe her.

“Are you winning?” His question was so simple, but there was something in the playful tone that made her shiver.

“...I’m not sure.”

She watched his muscular frame emerge from the hurricane of blankets he had twisted himself into over the last hour. Usually, she enjoyed watching him stretch and show off his body, but the way he moved that night, lithe and deliberate, reminded her of a large predatory cat. Unhurried, he rolled over onto his stomach, moving each arm in turn, elbows sinking into the cushions as he rested his chin in his hands and smiled at her. He looked perched and ready to pounce, leaving her feeling very small.

When she finally regained the courage to let her eyes flick back to her phone, he asked, plainly, “how’s Yoosung?”

MC swallowed. It wasn’t that she’d been actively trying to hide the fact that she peeked into the RFA app from time to time… though, some part of her had feared he would take away that last little bit of outside contact from her if he knew.

“Let me guess; he’s still playing LOLOL?”

What was she supposed to say? “Uh yeah, probably. He mentioned it last time I talked to him. You know how he is,” she replied, trailing off into nervous chuckles.

“MC. Why didn’t you answer him?”

She spun around again to face Luciel. His phone was on the bed in front of him; its screen was lit up with the familiar scene of the RFA chat room. Jittery and breathless, she glanced back at her phone and realized she didn’t see his nametag there. So he was just watching her somehow. “What the fuck, Luciel?”

“That’s impolite. Why didn’t you answer him, hmm?”

His calm tone was so fucking infuriating as if he hadn’t just confessed to her that the last bit of freedom she was clinging to had been an illusion. She grasped the phone with her other hand as the one holding it was shaking violently. “Well, I don’t know where we are, I guess.”

Luciel rolled over on his back, head hanging off the bed as he still stared at her. “You don’t know where we are? That’s very silly. You shouldn’t leave him waiting though, babe. You know how Yoosung worries.”

Who fucking cares what Yoosung thought?! She quickly withered under his upside-down stare though and relented.

MC: I’m not sure, but it’s nice here.

Jaehee: Where ever it is, make sure you have a proper meal.  
Jaehee: Even on your honeymoon you shouldn’t be eating convenience food all the time.

Yoosung: Wow, it really is like you are on a never-ending honeymoon.  
Yoosung: You guys are so cute together.

MC: … dude, you never saw us together in person.

Yoosung: I mean when you were both in the chat  
Yoosung: You’re like two peas in a weird pod!

MC: Yep. Well, I’m going to go outside for a while.

Yoosung: I’m glad you’re with Seven. You guys are so good for each other.

Jaehee: Agreed. I never thought I would envy him, but I do.  
Jaehee: It makes me dream of vacations… days on the beach… *sigh*

Finally, there was someone who wanted to talk about literally anything other than her and Seven. She decided to capitalize on it instead of leaving right away.

MC: Actually. Hey, Jaehee. How’s Zen been?

Jaehee: As beautiful and musically talented as ever!

MC: I just wondered, because he’s never in chat.

Seven’s voice chirped in at that. “Zen thought we were weird, so he probably isn’t interested in hearing about the MC and Seven show.” MC shook her head. That wasn’t right...Zen had been supportive of them too and had given her advice when she thought that Seven wasn’t interested in her.

Jaehee: He’s been busy with rehearsals for a new play.  
Maybe he’ll play a singing Longcat!

MC looked over at Luciel in confusion. That last line was in a grey text bubble without an avatar associated with it. In turn, he sat up abruptly and started frantically tapping on his phone.

MC: What do you mean, Longcat? Isn’t he allergic to cats?

[Zen has entered the chatroom]

Zen: Hey, gorgeous! How have you been?

MC: Good, I guess.

Zen: Just good?  
Zen: Let me send you a selfie to brighten up your day.

Before she could even process the image, it was replaced by another, and another, silver hair and red eyes flashing across the screen.

Zen: Let me send you a selfie to brighten up your day.  
Zen: Let me send you a selfie to brighten up your day.  
Zen: Let me send you a selfie to brighten up your day.

A loud exclamation of, “NO!” from Luciel caused her to drop her phone on the floor with a clatter. She stared down at it as the screen flashed with a seemingly endless stream of images with the same text between each one.

Zen: Let me send you a selfie to brighten up your day.  
Zen: Let me send you a selfie to brighten up your day.  
Zen: Let me send you a selfie to brighten up your day.

After a few more moments the RFA chat room flickered off, replaced by lines of scrolling green code. Among the chaos, all nonsense to her, she picked up one line that made all too much sense.

[Error: AI.Zen has malfunctioned. Retry?]

A sickly cold sensation washed over her, nervous energy percolating just below her skin. “Luciel!? What the hell?!” Bounding up from her chair, she kicked her phone as hard as she could, sending it skittering underneath the bed. “They weren’t even real?!”

He didn’t answer. Both of his hands were wrapped around his phone so tightly that his knuckles were turning white. Luciel shook his head, not looking at her. “Who?”

His simple question sent her mind reeling, looking for anything to grab onto that made sense. “The RFA! Were you the only real person in the chatroom?”

Luciel bonelessly toppled over sideways onto the bed. Partly muffled by the blankets, he replied, “nah. The others were real. Are real. This is just… a project I’ve been working on.” He rolled his head to the side, looking up again, at anything but her. With a hollow voice, he continued, “it wasn’t supposed to break down like that. You weren’t supposed to know.”

“Why would you even make this? Fake friends?” Her chest ached just thinking about it. She was alone, with Seven, and even he… She blinked back the tears that threatened to spill over. There was a numbness in her, a hollow space that still loved him intensely. If only she could withdraw into that space instead of this harsh reality where he suddenly seemed like a stranger.

He sighed, letting his phone drop to the floor, clattering against the boards. “When I saw you were trying to use the RFA app, I realized that you probably missed them. It wasn’t fair for me to steal you away from everyone like this. But... If you could talk to them, they might have found out where we were, and they would have been at risk just by having that information.”

His explanation sounded like nothing more than a fragile excuse. “Oh, that’s right. Mr. Secret and Dangerous. Bullshit, you wanted to see what I was saying about you.”

She instinctively flinched back a step when he rolled off the bed, standing to his full height before her. “Babe, no... I just wanted to keep us safe and free together, forever. I love you.” Instead of walking towards her, he reached into the closet for something that she couldn’t see in the relative darkness of the room. “But what would you have said? About me, that is?”

With his face in shadow, amber eyes seeming to glow with a warning light, she felt like she was seeing his true self. Was this the Luciel she had fallen for? Before her, she saw a treacherous man, capable of things she couldn’t even imagine. It was a long shot, but maybe she could shock him enough to give herself time to escape. “Right now? I would tell them that you’re acting like a fucking creep!”

MC bolted out of the bedroom, attempting to pull the door closed behind her to slow him down, but Luciel caught the edge of it, making her nearly lose her balance. She released the doorknob and ran through the living room, weaving past the sofa, making a line towards the door.

Freedom only two steps away, she jerked backward as Luciel grabbed her by the wrist and crushed her back to his chest, holding her tightly. When she had decided to make a break for it, she knew she was completely outclassed by him, but she had to try. Gasping for breath in his iron grip, she stumbled as he dragged her with him until his back was to the door. He had cut off her escape route. MC wanted more than anything to scream for help, but every part of her was shaking enough that she couldn’t get enough air to put any strength behind it.

Her body shivered anew as Luciel’s ragged breath ghosted over the shell of her ear. “That hurts, you know.” The chipper voice that she had grown to adore was there, but it felt like it had been honed to a sharp edge. “I’ve been doing this for you. Everything I do is for you, I…”

“Seven, let go of me! I can’t breathe!” She struggled in his grasp, thrashing back and forth, accomplishing nothing but wearing herself out. Exhausted and hopeless, she leaned back against his chest, silently praying for things to go back to normal, for this closeness to be a source of comfort again.

“I can feel you breathing. Relax. You’re safe.” She tried to turn her head away from his touch as he lovingly brushed her temple, still holding her fast with the other arm. “I'm sorry I scared you. I didn't mean to. I knew I could never be enough for you so I thought the RFA app would help…” His voice caught, and she felt him shudder against her. “I love you, MC. Let's go to bed and forget about this, please?”

How could she answer that? She honestly did want to forget that her friends were imposters and that this desperate man was her only lifeline. Even now, as the anger still roiled within her, his familiar scent, his warmth, tugged at the hollow in her chest. She needed a moment alone to think before she said something else to hurt him.

“No. I need some time first. Let me go outside to clear my head, okay?” MC savored a deep breath as he finally let his arm drop, freeing her. She felt a tendril of hope in that dark space within. If he was still able to be reasonable, maybe they could work this out.

As she turned to look at him, that little seedling of hope withered to dust. Luciel was still leaning against the door, too-wide red-rimmed eyes peering out at her from behind a mess of crimson locks that nearly shrouded them entirely. “O-outside?”

MC’s blood ran cold. He wasn’t going to let her go.

Before she could reply, he continued. “I don’t… No, it’s so dangerous outside, MC. You’re so beautiful. I know some filthy roach out there will kidnap you to have for his own. I told you. I know how people are.” He held one hand out to stay her, as his other, trembling arm reached behind his back. “God… every time you leave, I’m terrified I won’t see you again. Let’s just… stay here.”

A bead of sweat wound its way past her temple and down to her cheek, the cold trail from it leaving her shivering before him. “Seven…”

Her eyes flicked to the door as he took a few hesitating steps towards her. “Please, stay within my sight. That’s all I need. I feel like I’m falling apart when I can’t see you, MC.” When he brought both of his hands before him in a pleading gesture as he begged her to stay, she froze, her breath catching in her tightening throat.

Though it wasn’t pointed directly at her, the pistol held loosely in his hand demanded every bit of her attention. He glanced down as if noticing it for the first time himself. “L-look, I’m not going to hurt you. Please, God, let’s just go back to bed. Together. We’ll wake up tomorrow, and we’ll get another boat, and we’ll leave this place.”

She’d been abandoned on an alien planet, everything vaguely similar to the world she knew and loved, but wrong. Gravity itself warped around her as her feet pulled her backward and away from him, step by achingly slow step. “Seven... what…?” Any further words left her as he followed, keeping pace with her.

“We gave up everything to be together,” he stated, his voice a strained and wavering thing, as he blinked back tears. “I can’t lose you.”

Her every muscle tensed violently as her back hit a wall. He fell upon her in the span of a heartbeat, his presence overwhelming, though his touch was gentle as it roamed over her body. She couldn’t even look at him, instead focusing on the ceiling. Would her pleas reach beyond it to whatever God watches over this lonely place?

There was nothing but his heat as he nuzzled against her neck, his familiar scent, his now frantic pawing and whispers of her name, yet it seemed so distant as if it was happening to some version of her in another world.

“MC. I love you. Please say you still love me,” he tearfully begged as he caressed her cheek.

Between sobbing breaths, she managed, “Seven, you’re scaring me.”

He clutched at her hand until she relented and let him twine his fingers with hers. Cold metal brushed the side of her face and trailed down to her neck. “MC. Tell me you still love me.”

“I…” Despite how much she was shaking, she managed, “I do…” It was the truth. She didn't understand why he was doing this but it was still Seven doing it to her, and she wanted more of him.

Luciel groaned in response, bringing her hand to his lips to reverently kiss her knuckles one by one. “God. I knew it. Please, say it.” She trembled anew as he trailed that cold steel over her collarbone, slowly running the barrel back up along her neck and down the other side. As he drew one of her fingers into her mouth, gliding his lower lip along the sensitive pad, pinning her with his golden gaze, she felt the scales tip heavily in his favor. “Please.”

“Luciel,” she breathed. “I love you.”

“MC… I’d do anything to keep hearing you say that.” He pressed her hand against the wall over her head, leaning in to kiss her. She started to turn to avoid his seeking lips, but he guided her back to him with the barrel of the pistol — the urge to flee melting away under Luciel’s feverish kisses. His dancing tongue tempered her fear, changing it instead to a catalyst for her growing need for him. “I’ll do anything to keep hearing you say that,” he murmured against her, moving to suck at the soft flesh of her throat.

The twin sensations of his hot mouth on her neck and the chill metal now playing at the skin just under the hem of her shirt... it was all too much. The last vestiges of her fear served only as kindling for the flames that sent waves of fitful heat through her flesh, as she let herself give in to the sensations. She wrapped her free arm around his neck both to urge him onward and to give some direction to his frantic passions, guiding him lower. “Yes, Luciel, my love…”

“I would tear down the sun from the sky for you,” he growled as he pulled her shirt up over her breasts, kissing the tops of them. He released her pinned hand so that he could free her from the confines of her bra. Cool metal skimmed over her ribs sending ripples of shivers through her. “Let me love you like this forever, MC.”

She could only moan some semblance of his name in reply once he began suckling at her breasts, devouring each one in turn. Luciel’s single-minded assault left her breathless. Of their own accord, her thighs pressed together, giving some small relief to the pulsing need there. When she could take no more, she wove her fingers through his crimson mane, gathering a loose fistful and pushing him further toward where she really needed him.

***

The delicious creature before him belonged to him, and only him. He had had enough of sharing her presence with the world. All to himself, now.

A stolen pistol meant only to protect her, molded to his hand so comfortably, becoming an extension of himself. Just the sight of it made her so compliant. Beyond that, the way her breathing picked up and her body twisted at the feel of it against her skin told him something else entirely. He grinned to himself, glad he wasn’t the only one enjoying it.

She had liked him being possessive, right? Good. His beautiful angel, this wicked minx, was trying to take control, but he didn’t want to be on his knees, even if swore he would spend the rest of his life worshipping at her altar. No. Tonight she was his.

He reached up and grabbed her wrist, applying pressure until she let the hand tangled in his locks released him. She made a squeak of protest when he stood up completely, still holding her wrist. The look in her eyes told him she thought he was done with her for the night. Not a chance.

The terror that had suffused him at the thought of losing her began to ebb away the moment he wrenched control from her. He watched emotions play across her face. Fear, lust, confusion, adoration, they all chased each other in circles. Surely, she saw the same things reflected in his. This weak and anxious feeling is not for me, he decided. It reminded him too much of his childhood. He was sick of being afraid to say the wrong things, to do the wrong things.

Swiftly, he spun her around, twisting the arm he held behind her back. As an afterthought, he pressed the muzzle of the pistol, cold against her lower back. “Move,” he demanded, as he aimed her towards the bedroom.

He smirked as her body reacted to the gun, jolting away from it as if it had shocked her. “Seven, you just had to ask!” Her voice was high and frightened, and the sound of it met with some part of him he had tried through his life not to acknowledge, dark fantasies he never imagined indulging with a willing partner.

“I’m not in the mood to ask.” Luciel felt his face heat up at how much his own words affected him. This felt… right. If control was the answer to the anxiety that was killing him, he could work with that. He released her arm and turned her to face him before shoving her shoulders hard enough to make her stumble and fall backward onto the bed. She looked so beautiful with her hair splayed out around her, chest heaving with frantic breaths. Her lust-dark eyes still held a tinge of fear, and he let out a held breath as tension built low within him. He needed to see more.

He followed her down to the bed, yanking on her shirt as she struggled to get out of it fast enough for him. Thrilled by her harried scrambling to comply, he pulled at one leg of her pants, prompting her to fumble with their fastenings. “Good…,” he drawled, fascinated by the power he held over her.

Safety still on, he slid the pistol between her exposed breasts. She squirmed under him at its touch, whimpering his name. Not his name. She had never spoken his name. No, he had left that behind years ago. His jaw clenched. Focus on the girl in front of you, idiot! The way she shrieked when he plunged three fingers into her soaking cunt instantly deleted the second of fear that hit him at letting his anger take over. He raptly watched her every reaction. She wouldn’t deceive him again.

His. His girlfriend. His wife. His pure angel. His personal whore. Each thought that beat at his mind was punctuated by another gasp from MC as he invaded her. He made a pact with himself not to be afraid ever again. Whatever it took, he would make sure she stayed with him, and he remained in power.

A depraved thought crossed his mind as her warm and wet passage seemed to beg his fingers to go deeper still. He shifted his body so that he could keep working at her pussy while sliding the gun further up her body until it rested against her lips. She lifted her head slowly to try to read his expression, her eyes wide, lower lip trembling. “Lick it,” he ordered. He groaned as her tongue tentatively lapped at the barrel. “Come on. You know what to do. Suck.” Instantly, she obeyed. Her eyes fluttered shut as she allowed the deadly weapon to slip into her mouth, still bucking against his hand.

“Good girl,” he purred, enthralled by the way her lips and tongue worked over the pistol, giving it the same attention she would his cock. An insistent pulsating sensation deep in his belly told him he couldn’t handle watching this much longer without taking care of his own needs, but… MC began shaking, moaning sloppily around the gun. He pulled his fingers from her only to grind them against her swollen clit, not stopping until she was sobbing and convulsing against him.

Once she quieted down some, all Luciel could hear was his blood pounding in his head. He felt like he was either going to black out or… he just needed to be inside her. Luciel slid the pistol out of her mouth and pointed it just to the side of her head. "Hands above your head. Now.” She complied with no hesitation, crossing one wrist over the other as she squirmed beneath him. He tossed the gun to the side and pinned her arms above her, earning an appreciative moan from his wife.

While it was amazing to him that she seemingly enjoyed what he was doing to her, part of him missed seeing that fear in her eyes from earlier, before she decided the pistol was no threat. Though his cock was aching in the confines of his pants, the front of his boxers slick with precum, he focused on the tender and vulnerable flesh available to him. He held himself back long enough to kiss her neck first before biting down. It would be… wrong to hurt her. Her keening wail wormed into his brain, jaws tightening of their own accord. No, he shouldn’t. “Luciel!” she managed between gasps.

His head was filled with a pleasant buzzing as she flailed helplessly beneath him. He released her neck, lips roving over her body until he found another soft spot that called to him. Sucking the flesh of her shoulder into his mouth, he kept at it until she was squealing again. A satisfied smile crossed his lips as he surveyed his work. It would bruise beautifully.

Luciel panted against her chest as he worked at his pants with one hand, his shaking fingers leaving him fumbling around awkwardly instead. MC’s voice, thick with lust, yet taunting him boldly, barely reached his ears. “Mmm, if you bound my wrists you’d have both hands free.”

What.

Tying her up was something he had considered. Strongly considered. He had even prepared for it if it became a need… The last thing he expected was for her to ask for it when she should be crying for mercy instead. Part of him wanted to fight against her request as giving in to her made him feel weak. But imagining the power he would have over her, chained to the bed and unable to flee ever again, spurred him into action. “Yeah? Why don’t I do that?” he hissed.

She cautiously peeked over the bed as he knelt on the floor and dragged a heavy box out from its hiding place. At the sound of clinking metal, she asked, now bereft of the bravado she had shown a moment ago, “what are you doing?”

“Just what you asked, my dear! I bought us something truly special recently. I think they’ll look beautiful on you.” She sat up, braced against the bed as if he was going to attack her when he stood before her, arms laden with chains. “Tsk. No, no. Lay back down, arms above your head.”

“Luciel, that’s…”

Before she could finish her sentence, he was kneeling over her waist, wrenching her arms above her head again so he could cuff her. She undulated beneath him, making a show of fighting against her inevitable bondage. Luciel had to take a deep breath to keep himself from losing it as she rolled her hips against him and whimpered. Handcuffs in place, he picked up the collar again. “Hold still. I don’t want to pull your hair,” he muttered absentmindedly as he removed the lock for the moment. She was as still as she could be through her heaving breaths.

Her pretty new necklace was a modified heavy-duty dog collar made of thick webbed material. Once he had it in place about her neck, he wove the shank of a small padlock through the ring on the collar and the last link of a long chain. The chain, in turn, was connected to a bolt he had drilled into the frame of the bed one afternoon when she was out shopping.

One can never be too careful.

No sight had ever been more perfectly erotic than MC splayed out on the bed, testing the limits of her restraints. Hands free now, he stood up and dropped his pants and boxers, letting them pool on the floor. Luciel gazed down at his captive princess, stroking his cock a few times and sighing. “You look so lovely.”

Languidly, he approached her again, safe in the knowledge that she was his. Always. He drank in all of her reactions, letting them fill every inch of his body, heat, light, and stark shadow. The twisting of her body as part of her wanted to escape, and the rest begged him to use her however he pleased — the way her eyes followed him, eager to see what he would do next. Her words might have been able to deceive him, but her body could not. Luciel climbed back up onto the bed, and with a light touch to her thigh, she parted her legs for him. The heady feeling he got from this power over her returned, spurring him forward.

“Oh MC,” he sighed as he positioned his almost painfully hard cock at her entrance. He watched her keenly, making sure she still wanted this. That was one line he would never cross. Hands bound above her head and seemingly beyond words, she nodded to him and shifted her hips so that she could accept him readily. Luciel let his head loll back as he drove his length into her, panting, trying to catch his breath. It was too much. MC bound up tight for him and begging him to take her, clenching her walls tightly around him, milking him... In one thrust, he spilled into her depths with a shout, every pulsation leaving his body convulsing as his unexpected orgasm tore through his body.

He finally let his head roll forward again to look at his wife. Her enigmatic smile, verging on a smirk, ripped him out of his haze of pleasure. Luciel saw himself with his hands around her throat, fingers pressing cruelly into the yielding flesh as he dared her to laugh at him...just the thought was almost enough to get him ready again. Instead, he leaned forward and slipped two fingers into the space between her collar and throat and stood up, the bead creaking underneath him. With this new point of control, he forced her trembling form into an awkward kneeling position with her back against the headboard. There was a better way to wipe that sarcastic smile off her face.

Her exquisite utterances of protest and confusion fueled his wicked imagination. He released the collar and let several links of the chain run through his palm, one at a time until he found just the right length for his needs. “Luciel, what...urk!” Her question was cut off by a sharp tug to the chain, making her rise up to follow its ascent until her mouth was inches away from his hardening cock.

One hand braced against the wall, the other wrapped in chain, he pressed forward until she had to either turn away or open herself to him. She did not disappoint, and he groaned as her hot mouth yielded to him. “Oh, MC. I’m so happy,” he moaned. His words must have reached her as she stopped just passively accepting his shallow thrusts and began to trace her tongue along all of his favorite spots. “G-good girl. God, you’re perfect.” Luciel tried to keep his pace steady, but his body took over, assailing her mouth. She tried to pull back to avoid the worst of it, but the chain gave her little room to maneuver.

Heedless of her sputtering and whimpering, he continued. “You’re so beautiful, MC. Ah! For years, I didn’t know who I was. I see now. I was waiting for you. My foundation. My center.” God, he had to slow down. “It’s all you. I need you.” He had her. “You’re mine, and mine alone, MC. Here in our little world you,” he paused to look down, watching his shaft pass her warm, wet lips over and over. Fuck, he was already so close again. “You exist only to me here, my love. Only for me.” Though he couldn’t hack into her mind and know if her actions were fueled by fear or passion, his words spurred her into action again, her drenched muscle flicking over his cock, using every trick she had learned to pleasure him. Luciel shuddered and tried to hold back as long as he could. This moment was too perfect to lose so soon.

He kept a white-knuckled grip on the chain as he braced himself. “Mine and mine alone, forever, MC. You are my everything, and I’ll be your world”. She began to struggle again, futilely, while lapping at him. He imagined her face, spittle running down her chin, eyes shut tight as she focused on taking him without choking. That welling tension inside of him built to the point of breaking. Breathless, he willed himself to last just a little longer. He begged one more moment at the center of their universe, a pitch black starless sea for them alone. At last, with a sharp cry, he let go. He felt MC’s mouth working around his length as she swallowed every drop she could.

The chain slipped from his hand, the slack sliding off the bed to the floor link by link, and he pushed himself away from the wall, sitting hard on the bed before his lovely bride. He cupped her cheek tenderly, using his thumb to spread some of the mix of drool and his essence over her slightly swollen lips before kissing her deeply. Together, they tasted of copper and bitter musk, a heady alchemy he knew he would crave again.

Desire sated, he sat back to look at her again. Even for him, her expression was unreadable, but it gripped his chest. He had used her, and could no longer tell if she had enjoyed it or not.

He bounded off the bed, frantically searching for a way to fix this. Luciel found a box of tissues and gently blotted at the lines of tears that he only noticed then, as he worked to clean up the mess he had made of her. “MC… I love you so much.” He let his fingers idly trace the line of the collar around her neck, a reminder that she would still be his, no matter what, even if he had made her hate him.

***  
Wild red hair, tangled and matted into a wreath of fitful flames. Striped glasses that framed yellow-gold eyes, the sunny color hiding cold darkness behind them.

The sight before her was familiar yet…

She flicked her tongue over her abused lips, and even that small movement made her jaw ache. All she wanted to do was to fall into bed and give into the exhaustion that filled her body and mind. Sleep… she could sleep and forget about all of this, waking up again next to the man who loved her.

“MC… I love you so much.” She heard him, but did he mean it? He blotted her cheeks so gently, gazing at her with concern. When he finished with that, he got up from the bed, and her eyes tracked his movements automatically. He returned with a small metal thing. He moved behind her and jostled her around a bit until he brought her arms around before her, rubbing her stinging wrists.

She supposed he was trying to help make her feel better. It was… almost working. Within her, she still had a deep well of fondness for him, but it felt far away and disconnected from the rest of her. If she could sleep, even that could heal, she was sure. MC let herself be gathered up in this man’s arms as he pulled her to his chest and guided her down to the inviting softness of the bed. Her hands tangled in the front of his shirt, looking for anything to hold onto. “Thank you for being here with me, my love.” Not like she had a choice.

Blissful unconsciousness seemed so far away. She could still hear the clinking of the metal chain, the memory of it reminding her that after everything he had left her unsatisfied. He had been so cruel and selfish and… Her throat tensed up as she thought about it, leaving her on the verge of tears again. Despite how awful he had been, the throbbing between her legs made her remember how his aggression had driven her wild, too. Dammit… She didn’t know what to feel.

“Say it again, MC,” he whispered.

She didn’t know anything anymore but was too keyed up and afraid to test him. “I… I love you, Luciel.”

“I’m so glad,” he said, voice filled with relief. As much as she hated herself for enjoying it, she found herself soothed by his gentle touches and the fact that she had made him happy again. Sleep found her not long after.

***  
MC awoke, bleary eyes focusing slowly on one of the dark wood beams above the bed. She experimentally moved her jaw around, finding that it wasn’t sore, but her mouth was dry, leaving her tongue feeling heavy and sticky. There was a tight feeling in her throat as well. For a moment she thought she was getting sick, then she remembered the previous night. Luciel had left the collar on her! Surely it was an accident since they both must have been tired. Could all of that have happened in only one night? She could still clearly remember him holding her at gunpoint and demanding she… Shame welled up within her as a spark tried to ignite deep within her at the thought.

No. It was a new day, and she would put all of that past her. First, she needed to get up and take care of a few things. Luciel was still asleep, arms and legs wrapped around her like an octopus. She slowly wriggled free of his grasp, somehow not waking him up. That’s right… he tended to sleep like a log after sex. She would have to remember that.

Feeling along the collar, she sought a way to remove it. It felt like a regular dog collar, so it should have a buckle somewhere on the back, right? Instead, it was smooth all the way around. She tugged at the lock several times, but it didn’t budge. If she tried to move around too much to find the key she was likely to wake him up. Despite what he had said the night before, she was sure he didn’t mean for her to wear this all the time.

“Honey, wake up,” she called softly, shaking his shoulder.

He grumbled a “huh?” in return.

“Luciel, I need to get up and um… take care of something. Can you undo my collar?”

Without turning over, he replied, “no worries. It will reach the bathroom. I tested it.”

What. “Just take it off me. That’s not funny.”

“I mean it. I know you can’t close the door, but it’s not like it’s anything I haven’t seen.”

Her face flushed with anger and embarrassment. He had taken away her friends a second time, and now her privacy? What the fuck was wrong with him?

“Luciel.” It wasn’t a statement or a question. She just… wanted answers.

“Don’t worry, babe. I thought of everything. I promise I’ll take good care of you.”

Shame filled her, heavy in her belly, as she trudged to the door to the bathroom. She hadn’t run away from the rest of the world to become some deranged man’s pet and yet… MC traced her fingers over the thick material of the collar, blushing again from the thoughts that bubbled up in her mind when she did so. She belonged somewhere for once in her life. She belonged to Luciel.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What is freedom? What is normal?

Moldering constellations of her own imagining crisscrossed the ceiling of the apartment as she kneeled on the bed, fighting the weight of her bonds for a moment. If only she could see beyond the plaster to the sky above... She was alone there for the first time in days. Luciel was out for some errand, leaving her to contemplate the walls and ceiling that made up her cage. A home should feel welcoming and secure; especially one shared with the person you love.

The line of thought left a pain in her chest as if one of the rusty nails holding the place together had pierced heart, flecks of the decaying metal sinking into the muscle, using her veins as a vector to spread the decay within her. She loved him, even if that love had grown cold - cold like the tray of breakfast she had left on the nightstand. The faint scent of it reached her nose and logically, she knew she should eat, but it was as if the signals she sent to her body - to get up, to move, to take care of herself - were getting lost somewhere in the noise. 

Minutes or hours ago - her sense of time muddled - she had been sitting with Luciel on the bed as he brushed her hair, humming as he carefully undid the small knots and tangles he found. He had checked her collar as well, running a finger between it in her tender neck, making sure it wasn’t hurting her or chafing. Every movement was joined by muttered praises - how lovely it looked on her and how perfect she was. When he left, he apologized profusely for doing so, lamenting that he hated every second away from her. 

Then had left her chained up in the bedroom, still, after bringing her breakfast. 

As the sight of the tray was only making her feel worse - the acids in her stomach gnawing at her fitfully, begging, but her mind unwilling to let her eat what Luciel had prepared - she turned her eyes instead towards the door. She hadn’t yet tested the length of the chain, and wondered if she could even leave this room but… Her bones felt like lead, heavy and cold, and with nothing listening to her commands to move, she had given up. 

MC let the heft of the chain pull her head back down close to her chest. The metal links shone before her, sunlight from the high window sparkling upon them. It was pretty, in a way. His simple solution for ensuring she stayed safe.

“MC,” he had said. “The world outside is dangerous and filthy. Here, you’re safe. I’ll bring you dinner and some more sweets tonight, I promise. I’m going to see if I can find a game system too so you won’t get bored. We’ll have so much fun together from here on out! I know I spent too much time on my computer, so I wasn’t able to give you the love that you deserve, but I’ll make it up to you staring today, I swear. I love you forever, my beautiful wife.” 

She hadn’t realized she was crying until her shoulders began to shake with each convulsive sob, making the chain dance and clank before her. Her head throbbed, feeling far too full. Hugging herself and rocking on the bed, she let the tears flow, taking with them some of the pressure and tension that had been building up within her to a painful degree over the last several days. Even though her eyes stung and she could barely breathe, she embraced the agony within her, holding it close like a child. It’s okay. It’s okay to be sad right now. I love him, but love isn’t supposed to feel like this. Love shouldn’t be shaped like the links of a chain or the barrel of a gun. 

She didn’t remember laying back down, but some time later she found herself awake again, scrubbing at the crusted remains of tears the stuck to her eyelashes. Was she still alone? Quieting her breath, she heard nothing but the distant low roar of traffic. 

MC tentatively flexed her fingers and toes, followed by a few other small movements throughout her body. It felt like she was moving through mud, but her body was listening again. Once she had sat up, she was rewarded with a reply from her stomach reminding her that she had ignored Luciel’s breakfast. She shifted closer to the nightstand, looking over the tray for anything that might still be good cold. Though it was hard to swallow it around the lump in her throat and the vague press of the collar, she managed some plain rice and a bread roll. Cold, oversteeped tea helped wash it down. The vague floral essence of it… he had remembered her favorite tea. 

...Had she ever told him that? 

She shook the thought out of her mind. Though it was far from ideal, the meal seemed to bring some more life back into her body. She decided to try standing up, cautiously stretching one foot down from the tall bed, recoiling initially when her bare toes touched fridgid wood. Memories of her old apartment with its plush blue carpeting fueled her resentment of this dusty place. Even the corpse of Rika’s apartment twinged her nostalgia. Both feet now on the floor, she waited until it stopped feeling like ice to her before letting her weight settle on her heels. 

First things first, she needed to test the limits of her bonds. She had been able to get into the bathroom with no issue, but it wasn’t long enough to reach the tub comfortably. Was he planning on bathing her himself then? It was easy to imagine kneeling on the wooden floor as he gently ran a sudsy cloth over her body, washing away the filth of the world, humming contentedly. As the peculiar domestic moment played in her mind, she felt heat stirring again within her. Being his pet… No. No matter how much some part of her longed for the idea, it wasn’t right. 

Her assumption had been correct then. She couldn’t even leave the bedroom by more than a few feet. Braced against the doorframe, she looked out upon the living room and the only way out of the apartment beyond it. The heavy wooden door that Luciel had guarded so jealousy last night - it became a beacon. A goal. 

Searing the image of the door into her mind to chase away the perverse little imps that whispered temptations to stay, she knelt next to the bed. Though her wrist started to sting again when the rough material of the mattress rasped against it, she carefully fished around beneath it until she found the object she had stashed there yesterday.

During her illicit trip to the supermarket, she had used the spending money Luciel handed her to buy, among other things, a small kitchen knife. She did need it for cooking, but after finding Luciel sprawled on the floor and behaving so abnormally, fearing that his behavior had something to do with her deception, she had hidden the knife there instead. Using it on him was out of the question. MC could never injure him like that. He was already hurting enough. But knowing that the hidden blade was nearby had made it easier to get through the night. 

Holding the shining blade before her, she considered her options. 

As she saw it, there were two paths to freedom. Beyond that door was an unfamiliar city. She had no money, didn’t speak the language, didn’t even know where the hell she was. Blinded by love, she had let Luciel handle everything, trusting him entirely. Now she was lost in the woods.

There was also...an easy way out, of course. Her dearest childhood friend had done just that one year ago. MC had found her on the floor of her apartment, her lifeblood having soaked into the carpet and hardened, turning it such a dark red it was nearly black by the time she got there. 

No. She remembered how she had felt in the weeks after losing her friend. There was an emptiness inside of her that had never healed up properly from wondering if she could have prevented it. Seeking out a connection again to fill that hole, she had started meeting random men through a dating app. But those sweaty nights and lonely mornings never even touched the pain inside. So when a stranger had messaged her, treating her like a friend, she had ignored all of the red flags. She had secretly hoped that if she complied with his requests, maybe he would have other uses for her. 

All she wanted in life was a purpose. Stumbling into a gig as a party planner for charity parties was such an unlikely turn of events that she had been sure it was destiny. 

Then there was him… with his cherry red hair and crazy glasses. That easy, unpretentious attitude was so different from the other men she had known. He had a talent for making her laugh in a way that let her shed some of the weight she had been carrying her the last year. She couldn’t help but feel that the way they had bonded so easily meant they were fated as well...

At least if Luciel thought she was still alive out there somewhere, he might not shatter completely as she nearly had in the wake of her friend’s death. Then he could find his purpose, his brother, and heal. They say, if you love something, let it go, and that’s what she would do. 

She crouched down by the bed to see how her leash was secured. A thick bolt with a ring welded on had been drilled into one of the heavy and ornate wooden legs. A weighty padlock connected the chain to that, in turn. Her stomach felt heavy as she realized the weakest point of the system could only be the collar itself. She felt that dark tarry weight settling over her again, telling her to just lie back down and wait for Luciel to return. 

No. The collar was the only path to freedom. 

Holding her breath and willing her hands not to shake, she pulled the thick material of the collar to one side and slipped her knife under it with the blade facing outwards. With no way to know when Luciel would be back, she had to work fast. Once she managed to make a small nick in it, she settled into a shallow sawing motion. The whole time, she kept her eyes locked on the door, butterflies in her belly reminding her that Luciel could be home at any moment. She wished she weren’t so acutely aware of the blood pounding through her veins, pulsing in her neck so close to that knife. One slip and…

The doorknob barely jostled before Luciel opened the door and stepped into the apartment. His sudden appearance made her jump, the knife skipping off the webbed material and dancing across her jawline, hot and stinging, before she let it drop from her hand onto the bed with a shriek. Luciel slammed the door shut behind him and dropped the bags he was holding, running to her side. “MC! What are you doing! Oh god, are you alright? I-I’ll be right back!” She was vaguely aware of him running off, followed by things clattering to the floor somewhere. MC closed her eyes and swayed, losing herself to the tides of some distant ocean. 

Movement on the bed jostled her out of her dreamlike state. She opened her eyes and blinked a few times. A wide-eyed and panicked Luciel was in front of her, trying to fold up some gauze into a square. It was funny watching him try with his shaking fingers. Why would he do that, anyway? 

He pressed the square to her jawline while swearing under his breath. MC saw her arm lift before her and grab his sleeve, leaving a streak of red on the yellow cuff of his jacket. He looked down, and she laughed as he fumbled around to try to get more gauze with only one hand. “MC... h-hold this, right here, okay?” He guided her hand up to the gauze along her jaw. “Hold it in place and don’t let go. Press hard. You’re bleeding, and we need to get it to stop.” Bleeding? She did as he asked though, holding the material to her jaw. Luciel took another strip of gauze, folded it, and wrapped it around one of the fingers on her other hand, taping it in place. 

He placed his hand over the one on her jaw, and she leaned into it, glad to not have to put so much effort into sitting up. She couldn’t imagine why he was frowning at her so sternly though. Before he said anything, he replaced the gauze on her jaw and taped the new piece up as well. 

“MC. I need you to tell me what happened. Why are you bleeding?”

Why was she bleeding? Oh. “The knife.”

“Knife? What knife?!” 

She patted around on the bed looking for her precious secret. “Stop, MC. If there’s a knife here, you’re going to cut yourself again looking for it like that.” Luciel straightened out the covers around her until he found it. He picked it up gingerly by the tip of its blade, dangling it in front of her eyes. “Why did you have this?” 

He was so scared and angry. No words came out when she tried to reply. “You w-weren’t trying to leave me, were you?” She shook her head, the movement making her world cant slightly to the left. “Then... were you trying to hurt yourself? I was so worried about someone out there taking you away from me; I never imagined you would be the one to try to do it! Do you really hate me so much that you would rather die than be with me?” Tears welled up in her eyes again, spilling down her cheeks, soaking into the already damp gauze as she shook her head again. “Then what?! Why?!” 

She flinched back from him and started to say something, but it came out as stuttered babbling. “I can’t hear you, MC.” His voice had gone from panicked to icy cold. She cringed away from him as he tossed the knife up in the air, catching it by the handle before pointing it directly at her. “I need you to explain what happened, dammit.” When she only responded with another sob, he held the blade to the uncut side of her jaw, lightly scraping it along the thin skin, just shy of pain. “Why are you making me do this to you, MC? I went out to get you dinner and fancy cakes, and I come back to this? Look. We need to be honest with each other.” 

“Okay…” she whispered, trying to move her jaw as little as possible.

In that same frigid tone, he asked, “and you’re not hiding anything else in here from me, are you?”

“No. I swear.”

Luciel sighed in relief and pulled the knife back. “Good. Honesty is important between a husband and wife.” He tossed the blade behind him, and she heard it hit the floor somewhere beyond him in the living room - out of her reach. 

There he was, calling her his wife again when he had never bothered proposing. “I was...I didn’t like the collar.” 

He softened a little, looking hurt. “But, MC. It suits you. You know I can’t risk you leaving this place. The world is so dangerous and…”

She was so tired of hearing those words. “You keep saying that, Luciel, but that’s not how the world looks to me! Don’t you remember the amusement park and how happy everyone was there? How about the clerk at the shop down the road? She was so nice even though we didn’t speak the same language.”

Luciel shook his head sadly. “That’s because you don’t know what to look for, MC. That makes it even worse. You could fall into someone’s trap so easily, and I might never see you again. I... in all my time at the agency, I never killed anyone but… If someone took you…” His shoulders shook, and she watched as a single tear traced a path down to his jaw. “We’re meant to be together MC, and I can’t let anyone take that away from us.” 

Seeing this fragile monster tearing up before her twisted the nail lodged in her heart. How had everything gotten so messed up? All she wanted was a happy life with her lover, but now… “Luciel… it’s fine. I won’t try to leave.” 

“I know, babe. I’m sorry I got so jumpy there.” He brushed his hand over her shoulder, and she involuntarily shied away from his touch. Luciel blinked at her in confusion. “Is something wrong? Y-you must be cold. Here... “ Hurriedly, he shuffled out of his hoodie. “May I?” 

MC nodded in reply, and he leaned in, draping the jacket over her shoulders and wrapping her up in it. He lingered there, with his arms around her, probably waiting for her to reciprocate. Instead, she focused on worming her arms into the sleeves. “Seriously. Not even a hug?” 

“Look, Luciel… I need a minute.” 

That cold shadow had made its home behind his golden eyes again. “I was away from you for hours, MC. I need this.” She grunted as he pulled her in for a crushing hug, nuzzling into her neck. Something small, sharp, and cold pressed into the softness of her breast as she weakly returned his embrace. “Finally. Finally, everything is right again. MC…My angel.” Luciel kissed her neck, just below the ear as his hands caressed her back under the jacket. 

“Luciel, please…” She wanted him to stop, but he misunderstood, covering her shoulder in hungry kisses while raking his nails down her back. Though her body responded, fitful waves of heat rushing through her veins, lapping at her center, she still managed to push him back. “Not right now, please!”

He pulled back, looking like she had slapped him. “MC. I… Fine. I’ll get dinner ready then.” With that, he got down from the bed and left the room, slamming the door behind him. 

MC stared at the door for a long minute before snapping out of her stupor. She fingered the collar where she had been working on it earlier. She’d barely made any progress in severing the material. 

If nothing else, she was tired of being naked and helpless, so she went about finding her clothing. Socks, underwear, pants, bra… she wasn’t sure how to manage a shirt with the collar and chain, so she just zipped up Luciel’s hoodie. The bloody cuff made her wonder just how much she had injured herself earlier, so she meant to use the bathroom mirror to survey the damage. Since the gauze was already soaked through, she decided to leave it in place. It would scar or it wouldn’t. 

Rather than wait meekly for him to bring in dinner, she wanted to see if her phone was still functioning. It took some scrambling around on the dusty floor under the bed to find it, and thankfully it wasn’t damaged. She plugged it in and booted it up. Her finger hesitated over the RFA app as she considered uninstalling it. It was useless now, right? The thought of doing so hurt too much though, so she let it be and focused on a game to pass the time. 

***  
A hesitant knock at the door snapped her attention back to reality. She couldn’t help snorting at the fact that her captor would bother to knock. 

“Honey… I’m sorry I snapped at you earlier. Um. Dinner is ready. If you’ll join me.” The door opened, and Luciel peeked in, his wild red hair as bright as ever. 

“I guess.”

Anger flashed across his face like lightning, gone in an instant. “MC. You need to eat. I saw how little you had of your breakfast. At least do this for me.” 

She nodded tersely and waited for him to bring in the food. Instead, he opened the door to reveal a table just outside the bedroom door. Tiny flames danced fitfully atop candles of varying heights placed in random containers he must have dug up in the kitchen. There was a large plate of sushi, though all of it looked like it had been knocked around and hastily put back together. He must have brought it in earlier when he had dropped the bags to come to her rescue. 

Luciel had a chair pulled away from the table, inviting her to a mockery of a candle-lit dinner. The idea that he even thought this would be a welcome sight revealed to her a hint of how far he had fallen in their days together here. 

“There,” he said, taking the seat across from her. “Isn’t this romantic, MC?”

“Uh, sure.” MC adjusted herself in her chair and swallowed hard beneath the press of the collar. He had ensured that she had to sit up almost perfectly straight to keep from choking herself at the end of her leash. 

Luciel tilted his head at her quizzically. “Honey, is something wrong?”

As hungry as she was, her stomach clenched violently when she realized he was playing some sadistic game with her. “No, I’m fine...”

Another flash of anger passed over him, crackling through the space between them and he jerked the table a few inches further away from her. “I thought we were going to start being honest with each other, MC.” 

Her will to live suppressing the panic that tried to possess her, MC snatched up her chopsticks, grabbing the furthest piece of sushi she could and shoving it in her mouth. The tendons in her arm stretched taut and trembling; she managed it without pulling too hard against her bonds. Luciel watched her, smirking, waiting for an answer. “Okay,” she began, still chewing. “I’m not fine.”

“That’s a good start.”

Glaring at him, she picked out another mouthful of her dinner, keeping it held in her chopsticks before her as she continued. “We went on this journey together to spend the rest of our lives playing and having fun.” 

Luciel smiled wickedly. “But, I am having fun.” 

“Bullshit. You’ve been strung out and acting strangely this entire time,” she snapped. 

He pulled the table towards him another inch, slower this time, letting the sound of it scraping across the antique wooden floor resonate through the apartment. “Well, I’m enjoying this, at least.” Luciel shifted in his chair, obviously trying to release some of the tension building within him. God…was he… getting off on this? 

She ate the nigiri she had just picked up and reached for another, trying not to gag as the collar bit into her neck, her toes pressing hard against the cold wooden floor. It was clear what he wanted and she wasn’t going to choke herself for his sick pleasure. “You never took me back to the amusement park,” she stated around a mouthful of rice and fish. “You won’t let me go anywhere. And what was that you said last night about getting another boat? What happened to ours?” 

Luciel’s jaw quivered briefly before he answered, his tone clipped and defensive. “It got taken away, okay? I thought I had hidden it well enough for a night of fun at the amusement park, but I was wrong. I’m still trying to save up for another one…” 

Banging her fist on the table hard enough to nearly lose her grip on the chopsticks, she yelled, “oh, good. So not only am I chained up in this shitty apartment, we’re both stranded here!?” 

MC recoiled as he stood up from the table explosively, his chair crashing to the floor behind him. “Fine! I fucked up! Is that what you wanted to hear me say? The Great God Seven fucked up! May his memory live ever on. Feel better?” He stood there, trembling with anger, clutching his new necklace in a white-knuckled grip. 

Well, if they were going to be honest… “What is that, anyway?” she said, gesturing towards his fist with one stick before stretching for another bite. The closest piece to her nearly slipped away from her grasp, forcing her to contort her body painfully at the very end of her leash. She grit her teeth, refusing to give him any sound of her discomfort. Muscles straining and burning, she managed to at least get it halfway to her before dropping it at the edge of the table, grains of rice scattering around it. 

Propping up his chair again, he glared at her. “Oh, this?” He yanked the cord from around his neck and dangled it just out of her reach as he sat down. Instead of his old cross, it was a key. “I did some renovations to the place. Look around.” 

A glance around the apartment showed her, now that she was looking for it, that he had also installed locks on every window, as well as a new one on the front door. Even without the collar, she was trapped. 

The resignation that made her crumple internally must have shown on her face. “Sweetie, don’t be like that. You must eat your dinner.” He gave her an infuriating grin, resting his chin in his hands and his elbows on the table. Even as emotionally exhausted as she was, she didn’t want to back down from him, keeping her eyes locked on his face. 

It was only then, watching the candlelight play across his features, that she realized there was something different about him. His cheeks weren’t as soft as they used to be and his golden eyes were punctuated with dark circles. Above the neck of his red shirt, his collarbones stood out more prominently than they used to. 

What… was he doing to himself? “Luciel?”

“Hmm?” 

Dammit, even after everything she still couldn’t help worrying about him. “Have you not been eating? You look so thin.” 

A twitch of his eye told her she was right. “I’ve been eating. Some. Here and there.” 

MC frowned at him. Taking a deep breath, she reached as far as she could without hurting herself, using the chopsticks to push the tray over to him. “Eat, Seveny. Please.” 

His expression softened, his ire sloughing off of him as his shoulders slumped. “MC…” The sound of her name on his lips and the sudden change that cascaded over him tugged at her heart, loosening the nail ever so slightly. The Luciel she loved was still in there, within this bitter shell of a man. 

“I’m worried about you, Seven. I still want us to be happy together, and you have to be healthy for that.” 

Without a word, he got up from the table again and approached her hesitantly, stopping a few long steps away. “I... I promise I’ll eat if you eat. Here…” Luciel picked up the tray and reached out to her with his free hand. She took his hand, linking her fingers with his slender ones, breathing a deep sigh of relief at the welcome and loving contact. 

He gingerly led her to the bedroom, guiding her to sit down on the bed. After leaving the tray beside her, he muttered something about being back and shuffled out of the room. Whatever he returned with, he kept behind is back. Remembering the last surprise he’d hidden, her body tensed again. Though she was on guard, she willed herself to give him the benefit of the doubt. She yearned to trust him again as she had only days ago. 

“I’ll eat if you eat, okay?” The bed dipped slightly, causing a few of the already lopsided sushi pieces to topple over, as he sat next to her. He picked up a bite and held it a few inches from her lips. “Can I?” 

She couldn’t resist her soft Seveny, letting her eyes drift closed as she opened her mouth, cold rice settling on her tongue. Unlike the others, choked down in the fear that he would starve her if she didn’t behave, this bite she savored. When she opened her eyes, he was smiling. “Your turn,” she said as she picked up a piece for him. It seemed he hadn’t expected her to play along, blushing as he did at her offering. 

They fed each other in relative silence, both indulging for a moment in the dream - a normal relationship - two lovers who had met so recently, learning about each other, being kind to each other. Secret smiles passed between them, neither able to comprehend the intricacies of the emotions behind them.

As Luciel finished the last bite, looking more at peace than he had in days, he asked her, “are you ready for your surprise? Or, I guess it’s not much of a surprise since I told you I was getting you cake and it’s messy because I dropped it and…”

“Shhh, Seven. It’s fine. I know I’ll love it.” MC interrupted him, touching his arm softly. 

He glanced at the point where her fingers met his arm. “Thank you, MC. I hope you like it.” He opened a small cardboard box to reveal a battered slice of cake, the scents of raspberry and dark chocolate tickling her nose. Another favorite of hers she didn’t recall mentioning. She was impressed. 

Letting the tips of his fingers caress her jawline, holding her in place as gently as possible, he let the fork break the sheen of rich chocolate, and held the bite up to her waiting lips. Perfectly moist, slightly crumbly cake, with silken ganache, surrounded a core of raspberry puree, and she closed her eyes while savoring every bit. “Is it good?” 

She swallowed, licking the remnants of the ganache from her lips with a sigh. “It’s wonderful, Seveny.” 

He held up another forkful before her, and as she accepted it, he asked, “are… we good?”

The nail twisted again, then disintegrated, leaving behind boiling waves of guilt, fear, love, sorrow, and everything in between. She denied the tears that wanted to come again, and simply nodded as the cake crumbled on her tongue, it’s heavenly tastes tempering some of the agonies within. Could they be normal again? What was… normal and who was there to judge them anyway?

Luciel’s sad smile told her he knew her nod wasn’t the full story, but it was enough for that moment. “I love you, MC.” 

On impulse, she startled Luciel by maneuvering the two of them until her back was cradled by one of his arms and she was leaning into his chest. With this familiar closeness, his warmth, she could forget and believe. “I love you too.” 

The arm that held her pulled her closer. “I’m so glad,” he whispered with a voice on the verge of shattering. 

She touched his cheek, and he set down the cake to return the gesture, his golden eyes shining as he gazed into hers. Within herself, she gathered up the fears that had terrorized her for days and let them go, like papers lost to a windy day. “Can we save the rest of the cake for tomorrow, Seveny?” 

“Of course, my angel.” He left her side long enough to close up the box and leave it on the nightstand, along with his glasses, before returning to lay next to her. She had shed his jacket, and they nestled under the blankets together. Beyond him and through the window, she saw a sliver of the moon hanging in the sky, signaling the end of the day. 

Looking back to Luciel, she saw him smiling serenely. As she resolved to believe in the precious man she had fallen for, he gathered up two fistfuls of the chain that bound her to this place, using it to pull her in for a kiss. No… how did she forget about that? Her lips trembled against his as she returned his affection, willing herself to forget. 

“MC…,” he whispered as settled into his pillow, the chain still wrapped around his fists but giving her enough slack now to relax as well. “I still can’t believe you chose me. It feels like a dream.” Luciel closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I’ll always protect you from the horrors of this world, MC. I’ll never let them hurt you. I will be your Defender of Justice for the rest of our lives, I swear it.” 

She could only nod, her silent tears soaking into the pillow there in the darkness as she fought to steady her breath.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Avarice and advice
> 
> Song for this chapter: VNV Nation - Retaliate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vprpioxSQ0

The center of Saeyoung Choi’s universe was tucked into bed; heavy, fraying blankets pulled up under her chin to keep her warm. Her hair fanned out around her, delicately decorating the pillow her head rested upon - a stray strand fluttering from her slow, deep breaths. He hoped she was comfortable. He hoped she would wake up soon.

“MC, my light. I’m sorry it had to be this way, but I couldn’t have you screaming like that.” He was sitting on the bed with her, as he had been for what felt like hours. “It would have been a big problem if somebody heard you, you know?” Sighing, he reached over and ran his long fingers through the soft strands of her hair. “You’re so pretty right now, like a doll. But, I miss when this place was filled with our laughter...or even your tears. Anything…”

A house full of laughter and love. Nights tangled in the sheets together and waking up to the morning sun illuminating her face. A future. A family.

Were those things ever his? He had known - known without a doubt that he didn’t deserve that kind of happiness. But in a moment of weakness, or several of them precariously stacked on one another, he had fooled himself into thinking he could touch that kind of light without it burning him and everyone else around him. Now it was all tumbling down.

At least she was still his. No matter what, she was his. She would awaken at any moment.

Before he knew it, his feet were tracing their familiar path along the wooden floor, back and forth, from the well-worn chair to the nightstand where the empty syringe seemed to stare at him accusingly. “What else could I have done, though? I have to keep you safe, dammit!”

He threw himself into the chair, tangling his fingers in his crimson curls, pulling as though he could jumpstart his brain into providing some solution to all of this. Eyes, blurring with unshed tears, spotted the familiar red and yellow of his phone. Yes, that was it. He needed advice. All this time he was trying to solve things by himself. That’s where he had gone so wrong.

[707 has entered the chatroom]

V: Luciel! You’re here! I feared I would never hear from you again.  
V: What’s going on?

707: I don’t know…

V: After you and MC vanished sometime back, we were all so worried!  
V: Is she okay?

707: Yep!  
707: I think so  
707: I’m sure  
707: She’s here  
707: With me

V: Luciel… that doesn’t sound right. Why aren’t you sure if she’s fine?

707: She’s been sleeping all day.

V: Is she sick? Does she have a fever?

707: Oh no, she’s not sick — nothing like that. I would never let her get sick.

V: Okay. Can you tell me what happened?

***

The bedroom had grown humid, air thick and heavy with sweat and musk. “Just… one more time, MC. I promise.” He knew she was exhausted, but she didn’t complain or turn him away - instead, she reached out to him with open arms, welcoming him into her again and again. He couldn’t get enough of her, burying his length into her soaking and swollen depths once more. They fit together perfectly, made for one another.

“God, I love you MC. My polestar, my guide.” She burned for him, like the very star he saw her as, igniting his need once more. How many times had he spilled his seed into her depths that night? Idly, he wondered if whatever form of birth control she had was still working… this was no place for them to raise a family yet… he couldn’t help but secretly wish. What better way could there be to make her his forever? To claim her?

He had almost feared she had fallen asleep, her eyes softly closed and head resting on her shoulder, until he found her favorite angle again. Her eyes fluttered open, rolling back as she let out a long moan. He let the sound pull him into a frenzy, thrusting into her with wild abandon. The sound of their sweat-drenched bodies frantically meeting, again and again, filled the room, echoing through his mind. A brief thought passed through his lust-addled brain that something was missing from the sounds that wound through his brain, but it was subsumed quickly.

Though the tension within him cried out for release, he held it at bay long enough to take care of her needs. She was close. All it took were a few rough circles of his thumb against her clit to have her twisting and twitching underneath him. Luciel savored the way she clutched at him, milking the last few drops of his essence as he filled her again.

Wherever the unexpected need - and stamina - had come from that night, it suddenly left after that last round, forcing him to live up to his promise as he collapsed to the bed next to her. “That was… amazing. I love you. I love you so much, MC,” he mumbled into the pillow.

She didn’t reply, but he felt MC’s fingers massage his scalp as he gave in to sleep. The last conscious thought that crawled through his mind was a vague feeling of having forgotten something.

***

707: I love her so much, V.  
707: I can’t  
707: How did I ever live without her?

V: I… I know what you mean, I think.  
V: When I was with Rika, she was everything. I was a planet caught in her orbit.  
V: I pinned all of my hopes of understanding myself and the world on her.

707: Yeah! You get me!

V: But, Luciel

707: You would have done anything for her, right?

V: I...  
V: Of course. But I realized later that our love was born from obsession.

707: Is it wrong to be obsessed with the person you love?  
707: No one else could have learned everything about her like I did  
707: So I can surprise her with her favorite things

V: Maybe it depends on the couple.  
V: But you have to be able to rely on yourself too, not just the other person.  
V: You each need to be a complete person before you can love another.  
V: That’s what I’ve learned, anyway.

707: I am a complete person.  
707: I just hate what I am without her.

***

Luciel woke up shivering. Icy toes sought solace further under the covers as his frozen fingers knotted in the blankets. As he rose to consciousness, he realized that the bedroom, usually quiet, was filled with a sound like a chorus of insects. The pressure of the noise assaulted him from all sides, groping at his skull. He struggled against the twisted bedding until he could roll over, the first wave of panic crashing into him, a head-on collision.

She wasn’t there. The noise kept buzzing in his head. It grew louder as wind teased at his naked form, ruffling his hair. Skin electrified from the cold and the adrenaline that poured over his body, he bolted out of bed, trying to make sense of things.

She was gone, and the door was open, letting rain collect on the wooden floor in oddly shaped puddles on the uneven flooring. Staring blankly as the outside world infiltrated his shelter, his universe, his terrified brain kicked him into action again. FIND HER.

With no precise way to tell how long she had been gone, he had to trust in the tracker he had gifted her with days ago. Luciel dropped his laptop on the bed and dressed hastily while waiting on it to boot up. He typed in the long password one-handed while putting on his jacket. If only she had taken that too… She was out in the rain with no coat, wherever she was. Or dragged into a van by some… no, shut the fuck up. That line of thought isn’t productive. Get the app online.

As he watched the app come to life, he fought to slow his shallow breaths. He was already starting to feel light-headed, and he needed to focus. There! The cat emoji flickered to life near the edge of the portion of the map he was focused on. He grabbed his keys in one hand and the small metal box on the kitchen counter with the other, shoving them into his pockets as he ran out into the storm.

Hood pulled low over his face as he didn’t have time to avoid cameras, Luciel ran as hard as he could. Rain pelted him, threatening to soak through his jacket. The cuffs of his jeans were already soaking from puddles he had passed through on his way, one nearly making him slip and lose his balance.

He knew the area well, by map and by foot. Before he rounded a corner that would bring him within earshot of MC’s last known location, he slowed his pace, ensuring his steps were no louder than the rain. Based on the few seconds he had watched the app before heading out, she wasn’t even running. Whatever she was doing… it made no sense, but he would bring her home no matter what.

Locating a safe vantage point, he was able to get visual confirmation of his target. She was walking, trying to avoid the view of the cameras she passed as well. She thought that was how he tracked her. That explained her pace. Good.

Rather than following her directly, he turned down an alleyway, running again once he was far enough away from her. Shivers worked their way through his body, less from the cold than the sudden thrill of the hunt. It had been quite a while since he had been given a mission like this. Observe, follow, remain out of sight. But this time was different. She was out there in the darkness, sure of her freedom, but with no idea where to go. Her return was inevitable.

Luciel slowed again when he neared the spot from which he would execute his ambush. By his calculations, he still had about 45 seconds before she would pass this alley. He slid the metal box out of his pocket with shaking hands. He had planned for this possibility days ago, so the syringe within already contained a measured dosage of opaque liquid.

Steadying his breathing, he waited. The pounding of his heart rivaled the fury of the storm that raged around him as he leaned against the brick wall, its chill soaking into his back. Ten seconds. Nine…

There she was, arms wrapped around her chest and shivering as she walked. Her hair and blouse clung to her like a second skin, plastered so by the pouring rain. Everything about her spoke of fear, and he was ready to drink deeply of it. He pounced, clamping a gloved hand over her mouth, killing her scream before it was given life. Luciel grinned as he pulled her to him, her wet body pressed tight to his chest.

Instantly she began trying to fight against his grasp, legs kicking but finding no purchase against the wet ground. He grunted as she managed to graze his shin and simultaneously land an elbow against one of his ribs. Heat pooled low within as she struggled vainly against him, but he knew this couldn’t last forever. “Hush, my angel. I’ve got you,” he uttered, close to her ear and raised the syringe. Before it could hit its mark though, searing pain shot through his other wrist, causing him to lose his grip on her.

That moment of shock was all she needed to slip out of his grasp, and she stepped back a few feet, turning to him. “Get away from me!! You can’t do this!” Her screams ricocheted off the brick walls, setting off alarms in his brain. She needed to stop. Brandishing the knife before her in a mockery of a defensive stance, tears lost to the rain, she stood her ground, face twisted with sadness and fear.

“You know I can’t do that.” With that, he lunged forward, twisting the hand that held the knife until it was in his hand instead. “ _This damn thing, again_. Were you really going to stab me?” She backed up until she hit a wall, still scrambling as if she could somehow sink into it to escape him. “Were you going to fight me for your freedom?” Luciel leveled the knife at her throat, approaching slowly.

“Leave me ALONE!” On the last word, she dove forward, knocking the arm that held the knife to one side, raking her nails along his face. Fire bloomed on his cheek, but the smoldering within him burst to life. It was a shame this fight would have to end so quickly. That she lacked any formal training in self-defense was obvious, and she practically fell into his arms after her assault. Wielding the syringe with his dominant hand, he stuck, and the needle sank into her neck, releasing its venom within her.

She writhed against him helplessly, still fighting for control but her movements slowed and lost their vigor. It was almost disappointing that she relented so quickly, slumping into his waiting arms bonelessly.

Luciel scooped up her limp form in his arms, carrying her bridal style back to their home, taking caution to avoid being seen by eyes electronic or organic.

That. Fucking. Knife. He was trained to look for weapons like that. How had he missed it? The words of his former masters played in his mind like a broken record. Emotion Equals Errors. If you feel anything towards your target, hatred or empathy, you will make a mistake.

Killing his emotions, as Jumin had suggested, was never something he had been able to do. Many nights after his work was complete, he sat in darkness, thinking of the exponential impacts of whatever job he had done, and mourning the innocent lives that would be touched by it. Vanderwood knew it, no matter how he had tried to hide it, and threatened him many times with letting the agency “help” him with their psychological training.

He had avoided that fate this long, fighting against it with every trick he could muster, knowing it meant he would forget about his brother.

Memories of the white-haired young man he had encountered back at Rika’s apartment fluttered at the edges of his consciousness, and he chased them away with a growl. Not. Right. Now.

Emotion. Equals. Errors.

***

707: What do I do  
707: How do I keep her, V?

V: You can’t force someone to stay, Luciel.  
V: If you love each other, you won’t want to be apart.  
V: Though sometimes it’s healthy to have your own space now and then.

707: No.  
707: You have to be wrong.  
707: She loves me. But she left.  
707: That’s why I had to bring her back.

V: This doesn’t sound right.  
V: Why don’t you both come back here. We miss you both, Luciel.

707: Why  
707: So you can take her away from me?  
707: So Zen can woo her with his perfect fucking face?  
707: No.

V: No… I didn’t mean any of that.  
V: We all want to see you two happy together.  
V: I had hoped to get to attend a wedding for someone in the RFA at least once.  
V: Please, Luciel. Won’t you come home?

707: A wedding.  
707: God, I’m such an idiot.  
707: I haven’t proposed to her yet.

V: There! See, I’m sure you’re just worried.  
V: She’ll wake up from her nap, and you can come up with an excuse to sneak out and buy her a beautiful ring.  
V: Just please, don’t forget to invite us. The RFA will always be your family. Luciel.

707: I don’t know if I can have a family, but I’ll try.

[707 has left the chatroom]

***

Holding her wrist, he rechecked her pulse. Normal, if a little slow. She was still breathing steadily, and for all the world it looked like she was only sleeping. Asking how long the drug would last never entered his mind, and he wasn’t sure that the suspicious man he had bought it from would have told him the truth anyway.

Luciel ran two fingers under her collar to confirm it wasn't too tight after tying a makeshift gag in place. He left her side momentarily so that he could check his wounds. Only one of the lines she had scratched into his face managed to bleed a little bit, but the cut on his right hand needed a fresh bandage. He removed the old wrappings and fondly examined the jagged cut that ran from a few inches above his wrist and across the back on his hand. Hopefully, it would scar, leaving him a permanent reminder of her and the consequences of being careless.

Tomorrow he would need to drug her again so that he could leave long enough to find the perfect ring for her. She would accept his proposal, and all would be right with the world.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I don't know how to summarize this one without spoiling things. Here's the last chapter before the epilogue...

Miles away in an empty parking garage, a nondescript van slowed to a stop, its headlights casting stark shadows through the dusty space. Its lone occupant killed the lights before pulling out her cellphone and tapping in a long password.

As she read her updated orders, she shook her head and tugged at her ponytail, pulling the mid-length black hair over her shoulder. It wasn’t often that GFX had to deal with rogue agents, and this one had stopped reporting in not too long ago. The premise of the mission was the unexpected part, but her target was not — Agent 707 Extreme.

She grimaced as she pulled at her ponytail even harder. No one had listened to her when she said he was a loose cannon since he always aced his missions and projects. Most of them had never met him and looked him in the eyes, seen that sadness he thought he was hiding.

Over two weeks of working undercover together, she had seen into some of the cracks in his mask and was sure of it. Despite his skills, she maintained he was never cut out for this work and had reported it to HQ. He had attachments and craved something else in life. She never understood how he had avoided going through psychological training unless his handler was protecting him for some reason. Sentimental idiots, all of them. Her warnings had been brushed off at the time, but not entirely forgotten, which was likely why she was assigned the task of bringing him down.

It was no surprise then that the missive from HQ stated he would likely be with a woman. 707 had ditched the agency to pursue the fantasy of love. Well, she was going to love being the one to take him out.

 

****  
Nothing among the starbursts of light, the wavering drips of darkness sparked familiarity in her mind as she followed... Someone held her hand, her arm seeming to stretch on and on before her as her feet moved one step at a time. A surprise. He said he had a surprise for her. What could it be? Maybe ice cream? Her next steps took her into a world of fluffy whipped cream running between scoops of strawberry pink and minty green. The one in front of her must be chocolate with a big cherry on top! What a strange banana split to have mint in it!

Two more steps and the image melted around her, dripping into the cracks in the pavement, sloughing off into the gutters. She stumbled on her next step, afraid to slip in the sugary sludge. The shape in front of her stopped. “... ou okay?” it asked.

Okay? A weight on her shoulders stopped her, and a being stood before her - infinitely tall and wreathed in flame. Cringing from its heat, she looked down at her shoes, watching the flow of melting colors part around her. Unable to move, she focused on those colors, swirling in wild eddies. They closed in on her feet, trying to drag her with them as she rocked in the current. No… that’s not right…

She looked up again, and the monster was replaced by a man, shaking her by her shoulders. His name was a number, she recalled. What an odd thing, to be named after a number. “Are you okay, MC? Can you… can you see me?”

Her tongue uncomfortably peeled itself from the roof of her dry mouth as she worked to open it, seeking to lick at the insides of her parched lips. A fence, white posts with sharp points at the top stopped her progress. Words. She knew how to form words, or had once, but only a vague sound, an unfocused exhalation of air followed.

“Oh fuck, I overdid it. What the hell am I doing? Black market drugs? What the fuck was I thinking?” He was yelling and sloshing her from side to side, her stomach lurching in counterpoint to the rest of her body.

“St-ap. Please. Sick.”

Seven stopped shaking her, his eyes comically wide behind the windows of his glasses. “I’m sorry! God, I’m so sorry. MC. Can you see me?”

The distorted face before her was familiar, but she was feeling too many things at once as she watched his shifting expressions. Warmth and fear and love and hate and joy and… She turned away, nausea worming its way back into her belly. “I can see. Home. I want to go home.” Home was so far away. Was it the dark blue carpet that she loved to scrunch her toes into? The balcony the overlooked the apartment courtyard, her now-withered plants dropping their leaves far below? Her rice cooker that played a little melody when her food was ready? Where was home?

“We’ll go back soon, MC. I promise. Before we go though… I wanted to… I had something to ask you…” Seven had one hand in his pocket, seeming to search for something, a blush dusted over his cheeks.

***  
“Holy shit,” Agent 413 muttered under her breath as she started to get a better picture of the room she was in. Once she had established the place was empty, she had let herself in and closed the door behind her, finding her way around by a flashlight and a few striped pools of streetlight that made their way in through the dusty barred windows.

“Agent, can you hear me?” There was no real reason to share this information since the target wasn’t here, but something about the locks, the dust, the overflowing trash can painted a picture she couldn’t reconcile with the weird kid she’d once worked with.

A burst of static preceded the reply in her earpiece, “what?”

“‘What’ as in what did I say or ‘what’ as in what do I want?” she hissed in reply to the gruff voice.

“‘What’ as in just tell me what you’re seeing. I’m busy tailing this kid.”

Dammit. She needed to get out of this apartment then. If that bastard got to 707 first, he would ruin everything. “Good. Send me your location immediately. I’ll be right there.”

She made a note of the brief hesitation before he replied. It would be an issue if she had to take him out too, but she would have to burn that bridge when she came to it. “Sending now.” Another pause. “What did you see there?” If she had needed confirmation, his tone said it all. He was compromised. That the idiots at HQ had sent him along proved they never fucking listened to her.

Emotion equals errors. How could such a simple concept be so difficult for people these days? Though there was no reason to linger there, she found herself looking through the door into what must have been 707’s bedroom. Most of the bedding was on the floor, and what was still on the bed was stained with what she expected for newlyweds, but also … blood? Her eyes flicked away from the bed to the floor where she saw a steel chain like a heavy duty dog lead. She followed it further into the room where she realized it was bolted to the bed frame.

“413. Tell me what you’re seeing. I need info on this kid’s mental state so…”

She cut him off. “Unstable. There’s… Fuck, be on your guard, Stark.” As quietly as she could, she took a shaky breath. “This isn’t a lovenest. It’s more like a prison.”

There was no reply, leaving her alone in the darkness of a room drenched in an unknown woman’s fear.

***  
“How can you stay so chipper while risking your life all the time?” Maelin frowned at the young redhead that had been assigned to her for her first big mission. Her boss had mentioned that he had started with the agency at age fifteen and he looked at least four years beyond that. Four years at GFX and he was still so... whatever this was? It had only been six months and already felt like her soul had been stained black. “You’re either a psychopath, or you don’t care if you live or die.”

The radiant smile he gave her was damn near disarming. How he could stand his unruly red hair threatening to get in his eyes at any second baffled her. Was this nerd seriously the great 707 Extreme she had been hearing about for months? “Oh no! I can only be one of those two options? Is this a visual novel game?”

She blinked at him in utter confusion. “What?”

“Ding! I pick the third option instead! By being here, someone else isn’t. Why shouldn’t I be happy? Besides, sneaking is fun. I wonder if we’ll get to dress up for this mission? I have lots of dresses you can borrow but…” The appraising gaze he gave her was not like the one she’d gotten used to from her other male coworkers. If 707 wasn’t thinking about what she looked like under her clothes, then what? “I don’t think any of them would fit you. You’re so small... if we have to crawl through any vents, you’re _it_!”

He giggled as she fumed silently. The lauded agent who was going to give her a first-hand lesson in infiltration was tittering behind his hand like a rich schoolgirl. She had barely gotten started, and she could already feel her career driving off a cliff and crashing to the rocks below in a ball of flame.

***  
The hesitation in his partner's voice- the fact that she called their hideout a prison… he had no idea how to reconcile this with the 707 he knew. He blamed himself for having been too easy on the kid. The moment Luciel asked him to watch that girl on CCTV was the moment he should have pulled out his taser and not bothered threatening him first.

Luciel had been impossible to track from the moment he went off the grid, but the girl had been easier to find. Even with her identity erased, it was relatively easy to use footage from Luciel's computer and match that to facial recognition software. It had taken an entire team over a week to get into that damned computer and recover the footage, so he was glad that it had brought results. HQ kept accusing him of being sentimental when he had requested so many resources to track down one agent. Fine. Maybe they were right. You can't work with someone for that long and not care about them to some degree. Zero Seven had become something like an annoying little brother to him if he was honest. He would never say that out loud, though.

Vanderwood leaned hard against a brick wall and sighed. “Unstable,” he grumbled to himself. Of course Zero Seven was unstable. GFX never gave a fuck about him except for his results. He barely slept, working until he passed out some days, leaving his “maid” to make sure he didn’t fall out of his chair and break his neck. Years of untreated depression and working for this shithole agency would leave anyone unstable. Not one to pry, he knew there were deeper issues at play behind his partner’s bizarre mindset but never let himself question them too much. Maybe he should have. Not that it was likely that the kid would have taken his advice, but what if he’d asked? His fist was reverberating with pain before he had even realized he’d slammed it against the wall.

No. The real problem was that he’d let the damn kid have hope. There was no happy ending to this kind of life.

***  
Silently, she watched the man she’d been tracking, and the woman who had led her to him. They were too far away for her to hear their conversation, but it didn’t matter. The woman was unsteady on her feet and staring off into the middle distance. That would explain the syringe she found at the apartment. It wasn’t 707 who had picked up a drug habit. He was drugging her, the sick bastard.

They were perfectly positioned under a streetlight, talking about who knows what. Maelin glanced away from them for a moment to confirm that her firearm was prepped. Typically she would have informed her partner that she was about to take the shot, but she didn’t trust Vanderwood not to do something irrational. Agent 707 was fast, so she planned to slow him down.

***  
They had walked an awfully long way together, leading her further from the apartment than she had been in weeks. Faint music, distorted but cheerful, caught her attention, taking her eyes off of the man in front of her.

Above the ugly cement wall next to her rose a behemoth of metal and lights, turning slowly through the night sky. She focused on it, taking in each detail, and remembered.

Seven had promised that they would ride on that Ferris wheel together after she had begged him to take her. They were going to have so much fun together, for the rest of their days - another promise. Wild, and free. What would the view have looked like from up there? Tiny people, frantically chasing down a little happiness in this dreary world. All of their fears, hopes, loves, all seeming so small from on top of the world.

How had she ended up here? All she had wanted was to live out her days with the first man she had honestly loved and connected with. She knew his past had weighed heavy on him and had only wanted to lift that burden from his shoulders.

The image grew blurry, colors swirling together as if someone had dipped a brush in water and carelessly wiped it over the scene that could only exist in her dreams. She turned back to Seven, who was pulling a small black box out of his pocket. He had wanted to ask her something? Oh…

Those tears that had turned the surrounding lights into muddled supernovas spilled over her cheeks, leaving hot trails behind them. Even after everything he had put her through, she knew he had only done it for love. She had always wanted a beautiful wedding.... She was sure convincing him to take them somewhere pretty for their honeymoon would be possible. Maybe this was what they had needed all along. Her heart was already singing with her answer- yes!

Breathless with anticipation, she waited, grinning at the awkward smile that Luciel wore. He was so nervous! How silly of him, of course she would…

A thunderous sound broke the silence and Luciel dropped to one knee before her. What…?

“MC… no…” The black velvet box dropped from his hands, unopened. A pool of bright read oozed towards it, spreading out from where Luciel knelt. She watched it seep into the black fabric, catching the colorful lights from the Ferris wheel. She was spinning, willing her stomach not to give up its contents as the lights danced and twirled around her. Those lights whirled faster and then dimmed, faded, until she gave in to the embrace of darkness to the muffled melody of a distant scream.

***  
Holstering her weapon quickly, Maelin ran forward to subdue her target. By the time she reached him though, he was already standing, leaning hard on his undamaged leg. She had not expected him to put up a fight like this but was ready, regardless. Instinctively, she braced herself, knocking away the punch he threw at her with a well-timed block.

Sure that his wounded leg would make it impossible for him to follow through with his right fist, she shifted her weight, ready to retaliate. With a monstrous roar, 707 launched himself at her. Maelin tried to dodge, but his fist slammed into her face. Stars exploded behind her eyes as Maelin reeled backward, stumbling. How the fuck…? Her boot skipped over a patch of uneven pavement. Already unbalanced, she fell to the ground, hard.

707 loomed over her prone form. His eyes burned with a dangerous light as he screamed at her. "No! You can’t take her from me!” Her body tensed as she expected him to continue the attack, skin prickling from the adrenaline coursing through her. Instead, he turned away from her and limped back to the girl. Still stunned, Maelin watched as he dropped hard to his knees before his girlfriend, pulling her down with him.

“MC. I love you so much. You’re everything to me.” It was strange to hear 707 sound so sincere. She cringed at being privy to a private conversation like this but he was still bleeding, so it couldn’t go on much longer. Let him have his moment, she thought. “Babe... I can’t let them take you away from me. You know that, right?”

“Seveny? What’s going on?”

“Shh… It’s okay, baby. They won’t separate us. I’ll make sure of it.” There was a timbre to his tone, a darkness in it, that had her reaching for her sidearm. “Just hold still, angel.”

The girl’s scream slammed into a primal part of her brain, setting her in motion. Maelin rolled up to a crouch, gun in her hands, just in time to see her partner between her and the target.

“Get the hell out of my way, Stark!” He ignored her and barreled into 707. Blue light crackled briefly over the rogue agent’s form, and what she could see of him slumped to the ground.

Stark made quick work of binding their target’s arms before rolling his unconscious form over to survey the damage. “Shit. The kid will be lucky if he can walk again. What were you thinking?!”

Gingerly touching her face to determine if anything was broken from the blow she’d received, she stared at her partner long and hard before replying. “It’s not like it slowed him down much anyway. Jesus, what the hell is that guy made out of?”

“I’ve never known,” he replied flatly. He ripped a strip of cloth off of 707’s shirt as a makeshift tourniquet and tied it around his leg to slow the bleeding. “Can you look after the girl? I need to make sure Luciel doesn’t die before we can get him back to HQ.”

Maelin nodded and approached the young woman cautiously. She was conscious again - wide-eyed and trembling, her gaze never leaving 707. “I’ll take her back to that apartment for now. I need to know what he dosed her with. They holed up there for weeks without anyone getting curious, so I should be able to get her through any shock or withdraws there…”

Her partner didn’t respond. She watched as he stood up, cradling the unconscious 707 to his chest and started to walk away. “Stark. You better bring him back. If you disappear with him, I will find you, and I won’t be as kind as I was with him.” The older man fixed her with an icy look, nodded, and walked away.

No one ever listened to her. Shaking her head, she focused instead on helping the girl to her feet. “Is… is Seveny going to be okay?”

For fuck’s sake. The man had just tried to kill her. Maelin sighed. “Yeah. Sure. He’ll be fine. Let’s just… get you home.

***  
“Yeah. I’ve got him… Right. I’ll be there at 7 am sharp for extraction… Your shrinks can figure that shit out. That’s way above my pay grade... Yeah.” Vanderwood stared at his phone’s screen until it went dark on its own. There was a part of him that had always feared it would come down to this one day. If anyone he knew was going to go, rogue, it was Luciel. But this…

“What did I tell you about not getting attached, kid? This is everything I've tried to protect you from.” He looked over to his former partner and only friend in all his years at GFX. Luciel, gagged and bound, only glared at him from red-rimmed eyes.


	11. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ~Epilogue~

**One month later**  
**GFX Headquarters, sublevel 3. Location [REDACTED]**

Eyes wide open, he was still shrouded in darkness. Not the deep familiar black of space, but one of absolute nothingness. There was no escape from it. He tried to take stock of the shape he was in, but he received mixed reports. Numb here, pain there, tingling elsewhere. An electrical sensation tickled at his limbs again and he wanted to scream but the rough fabric in his mouth already had his mouth pried wide open and filled. Every muscle tensed at once as his body struggled to escape the bonds that held him, to no avail. All he could do was struggle futilly and weep as he lost more of himself. Red light engulfed him again - the pain, the helplessness all too much.

Finally was awake again, in the only place he felt alive anymore. Her embrace. “My angel, I’ve missed you! God, please, don’t go away again!” She drifted away from him, leaving him screaming in agony, nearly turning inside out with the force of it. Her face was blank.

Why couldn’t he remember her face? The color of her eyes? He reached out to touch that featureless face, still glowing with a faint light. Would she still be filled with the warmth he had craved all his life? Would she be smooth like glass? His fingers reached her cheek and passed through it, the flesh parting like smoke at his touch. She dissipated into nothing, leaving him floating in a black void, alone.

Eventually in that silent space he fell unconscious again, back into the nightmare. The scent of electrically charged metal and something noxiously organic assaulted his senses as he prayed for any escape from this. He prayed to remember her.

***  
“Jesus. What happened to him?” A tall man in a black suit leaned against the reinforced glass window. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from the sight even though it made his stomach clench in increasingly intricate knots.

The other man tapped his clipboard several times before answering. “He fell in love.”

“Good one,” he snorted in reply. “I mean what did your guys do to him?”

The man with the clipboard straightened his back while turning to the window. “Our job,” he stated, with a certain fondness. “He came to us with serious obsessive issues, screaming a woman’s name and telling us to give her back. It’s taken a lot of work just to get him to stop screaming before he destroyed his vocal cords.”

On the other side of the glass, Agent 707 ceased trying to break his restraints. He slumped bonelessly against the bonds that held in his place, seeming to stare directly at the man in the suit. Even though he knew it was a one-way mirror, he still cringed under the man’s hollow stare. “... I see what you mean. What a fucking waste. He was one of our best. I remember when he came to us around seven years ago. Scrappy little thing, and he followed every order perfectly without question. At first, anyway.”

“Really? He just looks like a goofy kid.”

With a sigh, the Director finally turned away from the window. “Yeah, that was part of why he was one of the best. He was an infiltration master, and a superb hacker. You boys scrambled his brain so hard I’ll be surprised if he even remembers math. Fuck! Maybe we can sell him to a merc squad or something assuming he can still hold a gun.” He shook his head again at the grizzly sight and headed back to his quiet and comfortable office.

***  
**6 Months Later**  
**An unlisted apartment**

This place still felt weirdly sterile to her, even after she’d had months to make it her home. A pall of trepidation had settled over her life in a way she hadn’t been able to shake shake. Her therapist said she was improving but she wasn’t feeling it.

May tilted her chin up and ran a finger along the thin scar there. She couldn’t even blame him for that. Honestly, she wasn’t sure what she could blame him for. She had fallen for Unknown… no, Saeran’s trap. She had pushed Luciel into giving up the few things in his life that were keeping him stable. Thinking back to what she had learned about the twins, her mind tried to vault over her part of the equation and blame anything else - Their mother, Rika, even V. But V had fought hard these last many months to make up for his part in the play, which left her with nowhere else to put the blame other than squarely own her own shoulders.

She padded out to the living room, still in her pajamas and fuzzy slippers even though it was close to noon. What she needed was a distraction or three. Though she had never been much into video games, letting herself get roped into playing LOLOL had been a welcome diversion from her new hobby of rumination. While the game updated, she checked her email. The first message was a security update from her “guardian angel”.

> May (I’m still going to kick your ass one of these days for using my name as your new identity, but whatever),
> 
> First of all: Don’t panic. You Know Who went off the grid again sometime last week. We don’t know how he slipped his keepers, but they probably weren’t paying attention to him. Yet again, no one listens to me. But I’ve confirmed that your face still isn’t in any databases (any chance that your new hacker will join us??? He’s good!!!) and nothing about you is tied to your new address. I’m not going to say “don’t worry at all” because I’m not an idiot, but try not to let it stress you out. I doubt he’s capable of of tracking you down in the state he’s in. Keep your doors and windows locked, keep your cameras active, and remember that I’ll be keeping an eye out.
> 
> Your Guardian Angel (I’m going to kick your ass for that too)

Her heart was pounding as she closed the email. She checked her health tracking app and felt even worse when she saw the huge spike in heart rate. Even after all this time she could never shake the feeling that he wasn’t just around the corner out of sight and now it was a legitimate concern. May glared at her shaking legs and bolted up from the chair, seeking an outlet for her nervous energy. After two circuits around the house, confirming everything was locked as Maelin asked, she had calmed down a tiny bit.

LOLOL was finished updating, so she fired up the game. The loading screen was leaving her too much time to think so she grabbed her phone and hopped into the familiar chatroom.

[MC has entered the chatroom]

Yoosung: I can’t believe the new expansion is going to be out in just a few months! I’m not ready!

Zen: Don’t you have other things to look forward to? Like finishing college?

MC: Are you kidding? This expansion is going to be huge! I’m on the hype train in first class right next to Yoosung.

Zen: You too?! It can’t be okay for either of you to spend as much time in the game as you do.

V: Go easy on her. She’s been through a lot and at least for now it’s a healthy distraction.

It was nice that V was sticking up for her. She didn’t mind Zen’s comment much because he was probably right and was just looking out for them. Over time, she had realized there was much more to the man than his narcissism, letting him take the spot of “older brother I never had” in her life from time to time. Her game had finally finished loading, and she was immediately alerted to the sound of a new mail delivery in game. It was rare that she got mail so she turned to head to the mailbox, only to realize she wasn’t in the same city she had logged out in last night. Maybe… she’d probably just been playing way too late again and forgot.

She glanced at her phone again out of habit, only to notice something out of place. The names at the top of the chatroom shifted like someone had just left, but there was no notification about it happening.

MC: Hey guys, did you see that?

Yoosung: See what?

MC: I swear I saw another name in the chat room list for a second.

V: That’s… someone call Saeran.

[Saeran entered the chatroom]

Saeran: No need, I’m on it. One of my monitoring systems caught it.

V: What was the name?

Saeran: It’s nothing. I’m handling it.

Zen: What’s going on?

[Jumin entered the chatroom]

Jumin: What’s going on?

Zen: ugh, why did you have to say that?

Saeran: Everyone stop typing for half a second, I’m busy.

May held the phone in a white knuckled grip, half afraid she would drop it as she could feel her palms growing sweaty, and half afraid it would jump out and bite her. She didn’t see the name but… Who the hell else could have possibly gotten the attention of Saeran’s systems?

She watched and waited. Her cursor blinked fitfully, waiting for input. Then, it happened.

[Null entered the chatroom]

Null: #&)&

Null: #&)&

Null: #&)&

Null: #&)&

Null: mine

Null: ^)^ please\

Null: #&)&#^)^#&)&#^)^#&)&#^)^#&)&#^)^#&)&#^)^#&  
)&#^)^#&)&#^)^#&)&#^)^#&)&#^)^#&)&#^)^#&)&#^)^#&)&#^)^#&)&#^)^#&)&#^)^#&)&#  
^)^#&)&#^)^#&)&#^)^#&)&#^)^#&)&#^)^#&)&#^)^#&)&#^)^#&)&#^)^#&)&#^)^#&)&#^)^#&)&#^)^#&)&#^)^#&)&#^)^#&)&#^)^  
#&)&#^)^#&)&#^)^#&)&#^)^#&)&#^)^#&)&#^)^#&)&#^)^#&)&#^)^#&)&#^)^

Null: @*#(*s89d8823hg comee baak [to me e e0]

[Null has left the chatroom]

As soon as the new user left the room, the previous logs vanished. May closed her eyes tightly but she could still see the text in her mind’s eye, burned there like a brand.

&)&. 707. ^)^. 606.  
Come back to me.

It was him.

Saeran: I’ve resolved the issue and patched the system so that he can’t get through that way again. Sorry about that.

V: It’s him, right?

Saeran: It doesn’t matter.

V: God. I’m so sorry.

Saeran: I told you it doesn’t matter. It’s a threat that has been neutralized. Everyone is safe.

Zen: A hacker can’t find our location like that, right? Just by getting into the chatroom?

Saeran: They are hopping through a lot of proxies to mask their location but I can tell they’re far away. You’re safe, MC.

Jumin: I’m sending guards to your location now.

Zen: Didn’t he just say she’s safe? What the hell?

Jumin: I just have a feeling.

Zen: Since when do you have feelings?

[Jumin has left the chatroom]

Zen: I’m sure he’s just overreacting. You’re still at home, right?

MC: … I’m going to go play LOLOL for a while.

[MC has left the chatroom]

Right. She had new mail in LOLOL. That would be a nice thing to focus on. Usually mail meant Yoosung had found a new pet in game and had mailed it over to her. As she approached the mailbox on her map, she realized she was in one of the housing districts in the game. She hadn’t saved up for a house yet, and Yoosung never bothered with that side of the game so there was no reason for her to be there.

Following the map had lead her to a cute pink cabin with a flower garden in the yard. When she angled her camera for a top down view, she realized that the flowers made a heart. The red flowers seemed familiar to her… geraniums? What was this?

She opened the mailbox found in this random user’s yard.

> I hope u like it~! We can live here in the game together too after I see you again! I can’t waaaaaaait to see you, cutie!  
>                                                                                             - 707

May slammed her keyboard tray back into the desk and leapt out of her chair, heart racing. An alert from her phone warned her that her heart rate was getting dangerously high. “Shut up! Don’t you think I don’t know?!” She leaned against the wall, fighting to catch her breath and calm herself enough to look for her prescription bottle.

What the fuck did he mean? Why was this happening?! No, no, calm thoughts. Maelin would have told her if there really was a chance that…

Her train of thought was interrupted by a knock at the door. She felt each bang deep in her chest. It had to be Jumin’s guards, right? It would be nice to have them milling around the house for a while. They always left her to her own devices and a few of them enjoyed her cooking, so it always worked out.

She took a deep breath and disengaged from the wall, taking another full breath with every step. It’s just the guards. It’s just the guards.

When thinking back on that day later on, she would wonder why she never thought to check the peephole first, rather than just opening the door.

Red hair, now long and scraggly framed a gaunt face. Dark bags settled in deeply beneath yellow eyes. She stared in horror as he opened his arms wide, and hated the part of her that wanted to run into those arms. She had only just noticed the thick belt around his midsection, holding several large boxy things with blinking lights when a blur of motion preceded Luciel being tackled to the ground by Maxwell.

She would owe him extra fried rice for the rest of his life.

Once Maxwell had bound Luciel’s arms behind his back, he rolled him over and calmly called over another guard. “Hey, man. You know how to disarm these things, right?” The other man nodded and crouched over their captive, working away at something. May was left staring, unable to move. If Jumin hadn’t had that feeling she would probably be dead right now. Or worse. It was so easy to picture her running into Seven’s embrace even after everything else. Would he still smell the same? Would he be warm like she remembered, his internal fires always burning so hot?

“It’s done. Who the hell is this guy? He’s armed to the teeth!”

“No one of consequence. Get him to the van. We need to get him to the station right away.”

No one of consequence. The two guards were focused on shoving him into the van as he - 707, Luciel, Saeyoung - turned around and shouted to her, “I love you! I’ll always love you! Wherever you go, I’m still with you, I swear it!”

May fell to her knees, hot tears pattering down onto the concrete and quickly fading away.

No one of consequence.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! As always, you can find me at moonfireflight.tumblr.com. <3


End file.
